Mad Max Clifford

Wednesday 30th April

My mother used to insist that bad people would always get their come-uppance.  Presumably through divine intervention the wrath of God would descend and the evil-doer would (eventually) be punished.  I used to wonder just what evil-doing had been committed by starving children and cancer sufferers but apparently these were all part of God’s plan, and not for us to question his supreme wisdom.

Whether she was right I very much doubt, but am happy that Justice seems to have at last caught up with Max Clifford.  The man was not only a serial sex-offender by the evidence presented at his trial but a thoroughly unscrupulous and nasty piece of work.  There was a time in the nineties and naughties when he could do no wrong.  In fact he reigned supreme in the gutter press, suppressing and planting stories presumably for huge sums to protect or popularize his rich clients.  Newspapers seemed to accept his version of events with no question.  If Max was on your side you knew you would come out right.  He defended the indefensible and achieved degrees of whitewash for his clients they could only dream about.

But ever since the phone hacking scandal his star seems to have dimmed.  And then after Jimmy Saville revelations and the news that Max Clifford was one of the ‘celebrities’ being investigated he has looked a dead duck.  Apparently the reason he ‘got away’ with controlling the press was that he had the dirt on so many editors.  And now they must be crowing, and will have their revenge.  In spades.  For me, as long as we don’t have to see his greasy sneering self-righteous face defending yet another footballer or politician caught ‘in flagrante’ I will be happy.

Come-uppance never seemed so sweet or so well deserved.