Ian Hislop & Francis Wheen on Robert Maxwell

From Page 9: The Private Eye Podcast, 05/03/2021.
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[@suffern63]

At least his daughter turned out well

[@gettogo0159]

suffern63 >>> Well she's going through her personal hell & still be in years to come as she got nowhere or another person's shadow to hid in as her topping herself is not going to happen any time soon as like her partner in crime Epstein was gotten rid of by the PTB's but being slick joe's/corn dog bill (bill Clinton) long term lover has it's benefits. My guess she's done a deal with the devil, offered up her total silence (cash) & handing over all the damaging recording (copies) tapes plus her dairies etc for her life to the all powerful PTB's that no one sees in public acting up.

[@gettogo0159]

@@johnmulligan455 It's all on record & has merit in a court of law. Epstein was her lover first then handler + controller to recruit young girls or models of any age to serve his purpose two examples the 2 12yr old French twin girl models plus the 8yr old both cases came with adult & stayed 2 week at Epstein s "'Lolita island" & travelled on "his own private jet "'Lolita Express" ! Give that "slick joe" (Bill Clinton) was regular traveller on the same plane bring these mostly under-aged females for sexual purposes I know that I haven't a "wild imagination" all fact. The flight logs prove it - all are now public property.......

[@doncooper6801]

As well as can be expected!

[@CD-xo5ju]

@Pat M I believe Jeff is in Is Ra El atm..no extradition for peedos or predators..we certainly never heard of a funeral yet

[@Neil070]

@@gettogo0159 "it's all on record". No, the Internet doesn't count!

[@James_Bowie]

I've read two books on this grub. And how his two sons avoided jail beats me. His daughter proves that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

[@roybarker1290]

Also how they got legal aid from the most expensive and best lawyers in the country , and lived in Chelsea ?? 🤔

[@robertspencer2516]

Whole family stunk. Ooops suppose that’s a writ coming my way

[@francishunt562]

@@roybarker1290 think they got legal aid because assets they had were in dispute, and so disregarded when being considered for legal aid.

[@cristoff3]

what did his sons do to warrant jail..? genuinely curious...

[@roger_melly5025]

Guilt by association!@@cristoff3

[@johnhoward607]

I was told a story about Maxwell once that I hope is true. A bike courier was charging down a corridor at Mirror group to deliver something and as he went around a corner collided with Maxwell who ended up on his backside. When his lackeys got the fat bastard back on his feet, he asked how much the guy earned and he said £300 a week. He was told he was fired and to go the personnel dept and collect two weeks wages in lieu of notice. Which he did ! even though he wasn't employed by the Mirror !

[@robm.4512]

I’d love to think that the story’s true, speaking as an ex-DR from back in the day. When I was away from work, if someone asked me what I did for a living, I used to tell them that I was “something in the city” and let them assume whatever they wanted. It wasn’t exactly a lie, to be fair, we were largely treated as the lowest form of life, and not just by the likes of Maxwell.

[@robm.4512]

@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll check it out. Should be entertaining at the very least! Where would I find it, Beeb radio 4, perhaps?

[@robm.4512]

@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE Thanks! Off to watch it shortly. Mmmm, not sure that we have, but I’m up for it since we subscribe to that fine organ. I’ll have to see whether I can wrest the latest issue from my better half’s tender clutches……Easier said than done, she’s a tricky adversary when it comes to these things. :-))

[@robm.4512]

@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE Ok, I’m obviously not too sharp today. Put it down to a dabble with the old tincture last night having led to a positively smashing hangover this morning. I have now re-watched the piece to which this comments section is associated. Ho-hum🤕 Yeah, Maxwell was indeed an absolute bounder. I wonder whether Herr Trumpf views him as a role model? The Boris bit that you linked to had me smiling…..I’ve seen well hooked fish wriggle less than that. How about; “If I keep this mask on nobody will catch the lies” as a starter for one?

[@robm.4512]

@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE Hahaaa!! Touché. I’m going more visual….. The Batman movie “Joker” character’s manic grin on a substitute mask gets slipped onto Mr Bunter’s fizzog immediately prior to on-camera interview.

[@mArt2011funflydesign]

I met an elderly man working as a hotel doorman who had been a senior manager in one of his businesses and ended up without a pension. Nasty man was Maxwell, a few men like him still around today.

[@edwardoleyba3075]

Yes. Like “Sir” Philip Green who robbed the House of Fraser/Arcadia Group pension funds, just before they went down. I remember there were calls for him to be stripped of his knighthood. Did that ever happen? And another one - “Sir” Fred Goodwin who set himself up with a multi million pension fund before leaving RBS. A lot of NatWest assets had to be sold off to finance that. Oh, and the three top directors of NatWest who went round the banks offices extolling the “virtues” of the takeover by RBS vs the rival HBOS bid. They each received payments ranging from £750,000 - £850,000. Nice work if you can get it, and screw the peasants who worked for you for forty years plus😉

[@drmontague6475]

The working class arse holes are the ones who supported him!

[@stephenreeds3632]

A few?

[@wavydavy9816]

@@stephenreeds3632 The house of commons and the lords are both FULL of them.

[@rayalbion9637]

A Few ? you mean a lot .

[@CJD666]

I worked for the Mirror group in the Colour reproduction side and he stole some of my pension and many others pensions. After he died his sons said that they were not involved in any major decisions and he signed all the cheques, but mysteriously they were still being signed after his death.

[@drmontague6475]

Prosecutors say Ghislaine Maxwell was "essential" to Jeffrey Epstein's abuse, as her trial opens.

[@neiltitmus9744]

@@drmontague6475 maybe but they would wouldn't they or she would not be there it's there job to paint a picture for the bad.that in its self I not evedance.

[@drmontague6475]

@@neiltitmus9744 Agree. They're won't let her out on bail because they have strong suspicion she will get a fight out of the USA. Then you've got her arse hole brothers claiming she won't get a fair trial. She is FN mega rich, she can get the best attorneys . It's usually poor people who get second-rate attorneys. Every fucker could argue they will not get a fair trial. It's trial by Jury which other way do they think she should face trial?

[@andwhynotindeed9526]

Only time I saw evil. At one of his book launches. It wasn't his drunken aggressive rambling that told me Maxwell was evil. It was the men in suits standing around him laughing politely as if he wasn't a monster. Chilling.

[@jackiebayliss]

Probably faked his death with the help of his MOSSAD friends.

[@vestibulate]

@@jackiebayliss His Mossad friends made sure it was the real thing.

[@dambrooks7578]

@@jackiebayliss it is incredible that he was ever able to arrive at such prominent position in influencing political opposition just by publishing utter tripe and balderdash

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

I had a friend who's mum worked at Pergamon, in his private office, designed when he told her she needed to sleep with a guy, as part of the job description.

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

Resigned not designed, auto-fucking-cabbage!

[@donquixote2553]

I was working for the Daily Express when Cap'n Bob jumped ship. A friend, who had not long moved to the Mirror, rang up and declared 'there's not a dry glass left in the house'.

[@pwareham61]

Hahahaha 🤣

[@K1lostream]

Pretty sure it was Iain H (Possibly on the caption round of HIGNFY but I cant really remember) after Maxwell 'fell' of his yacht came up with the headline "a big fat Czech has gone missing"!

[@DeaconFrost2010]

Unfortunately the embittered employees’ euphoria quickly faded into horror and despair when their pension funds turned up almost completely empty… even after death Maxwell had the last laugh…

[@btard4978]

The villain of the third James Bond novel, Moonraker (1955) is Sir Hugo Drax, a corpulent, lying bully of indistinct Central European origins. Drax mysteriously emerges from obscurity after the War, manages to inveigle himself into the higher echelons of British society, commits acts of treachery, is secretly backed by a foreign power and meets his end at the bottom of the sea. Did Ian Fleming own a crystal ball?

[@mojohnnysteedland4149]

The Aussies - Packer and Murdoch similar although not as a good a fit as you rightly say. Makes you wonder how AUS managed to breed not one but two, evil media moguls

[@mojohnnysteedland4149]

I’ll add something else into the mix, is there a possibility that he made off with his nicked millions, helped not killed by Mossad. Then Spent his last years in Argentina or similar. McAfee, Epstein and soon his daughter perhaps doing the same? Unlikely perhaps but a lot of ppl disappear and the very rich and evil have the money, networks and the cunning to fake their own deaths and retire off the radar.

[@Mishima505]

And like Drax, Bouncing Bob had links to the Soviet Union.

[@ogilkes1]

No I think he knew similar types!

[@justme-hh4vp]

Probably a few of those types emerged after the war

[@craigwoodward7638]

We should always be suspicious of anyone who aggressively bullies and threatens anyone who criticises or questions them. Jimmy Savile and Lance Armstrong are two examples who intimidated anyone who dared to suggest any impropriety. It's a good rule of thumb that this means there's something to hide.

[@lindalong5052]

plenty of bullying, aggressive men around in my experoience

[@MsVanorak]

yup - i've been gang/group stalked for decades now and the group think/m.o. is that "the best form of defence is attack".

[@sabinessmith3046]

⁠@@lindalong5052bullying and aggression is not confined to men. As a woman, Ghislane did more harm than deranged father

[@chrisp4170]

Trump

[@alexmckenna1171]

Exactly. @@chrisp4170

[@johnconroy3078]

Four down votes? Didn’t Maxwell have five children? That’ll be them then, Ghislaine being unable to down vote from prison.

[@MsVanorak]

9 children - 6 lived to adulthood

[@owenrichards1418]

Lots of Russian operatives in England sadly.

[@huepix]

What a model human being. His children have done him proud.

[@rabidbigdog]

The two boys have a not-for-profit for their own pockets, while the daughter is in jail for life. What a family!

[@gordonferrar7782]

All his children have been in the boob. -the from apple far the tree fall doesn't- deleted for legal reasons.

[@stephenholmes1036]

The older girls are different

[@garyhardwick8489]

Maxwell was,as we say in Yorkshire,"As bent as a nine-bob note!"

[@markharrisllb]

A late friend of mine (Barry Askew) was for a short period the editor of the News Of The World (roughly until Murdoch realised Bazza was a card carrying member of the Labour Party). I remember him saying that "Maxwell was to Journalism what Chairman Mao was to freedom of speech."

[@WibblyPigNZ]

"Chairman Moa", being the chief of a very large flightless bird community (now extinct) native to New Zealand, could be relatively intimidating...

[@bettyswallocks6411]

I worked at Pergamon many years ago. I met Maxwell a handful of times, never pleasant. He did not like anyone to even hint that he was even remotely wrong or ill-informed. More than one senior executive at Pergamon was fired on the spot, on at least one occasion for pointing out that what Maxwell wanted to do was not really legal. I learned quickly to bite my tongue, and left before I drew blood.

[@drmontague6475]

The working class arse holes are the ones who supported him!

[@bettyswallocks6411]

@@drmontague6475 He may have been a Labour MP at one point, but he was no socialist. As I recall, the Labour Party expelled him - they certainly refused to ever let him stand again.

[@GodlessScummer]

@@bettyswallocks6411 don't think he was expelled. He stood again for Labour in 1974 but lost which pretty much ended his political aspirations. By this time he was more focused on regaining control of Pergamon and trying to get his hands on a newspaper.

[@bettyswallocks6411]

@@GodlessScummer Well, by the time I joined Pergamon, I think he already had control. Could have been helped by the two fires and insurance claims, maybe not. Who could say?😉 ‘Expulsion’ could be too strong a term, but word around the water coolers* was that the Labour Party had stamped his luggage “not wanted on voyage”. *There were, of course, no water coolers - Maxwell was far too stingy for that. He even had every outgoing call monitored to make sure it wasn’t personal. Mind you, his tight-fistedness, according to his then-chauffeur, didn’t stop him dropping £250,000 one night at a London casino.

[@jeanlind7540]

The lifts were bugged he was so paranoid

[@pianobanter]

"I've just given a fat cheque to a fat Czech" - Ian Hislop after losing a libel case with Maxwell.

[@froggiewrench1]

PE referred to him constantly as the "Bouncing Czech". Tickles me even now.

[@doublepick]

I worked at INVESCO after the Maxwell Affair blew up. They managed the pension fund of Mirror Group. There were stories of the Maxwells phoning up fund managers and telling them what to do. INVESCO were fined for getting the money of pensioners back. That’s right - they were fined for doing the right thing. The financial authorities decided that INVESCO did such a good job of protecting clients they must have known something was wrong. Bonkers.

[@petergaskin1811]

But understandable.

[@sandormccann2546]

If Private Eye and Ian Hislop were sued by Maxwell for libel, etc. when pretty much everything they wrote about him was true, have they never been able to claim anything back from the estate of the SOB? Seems very unfair in the extreme.

[@sandormccann2546]

@@jtaylor8606 It should have been the case but his vile daughter was able to gad about the planet with Jeffrey Epstein. No idea if he picked up all her bills or not, possibly did. The entire case seems to have been just quietly forgotten about. Years and years of libel cases and Private Eye being found guilty when they were nothing of the kind. Pretty sickening.

[@Britonbear]

I was doing some volunteer maintenance work at a school swimming pool at the time of Maxwell's death; there was a poster on the wall that was titled 'Learn to Swim With the Daily Mirror'.

[@tomwilko7841]

Haha...as a young boy in the early 80s i actually had on my wall a series of daily mirror 'how to swim' posters featuring olympian David Wilkie, I'd totally forgotten, thx for the memory

[@crashrr2993]

My father was the night editor of The Times. He told me that Maxwell would regularly call him up to threaten legal action if a story about him was published. He would harangue my father telling him how the Mirror Group was founded on solid earnings, unlike News International which was wobbling on debt! My father would thank him for his input, ignore him, and the stories were printed.

[@trevawgathinny1114]

The first time I met Maxwell's spokesman,Bob Cole,was slightly unsettling,in terms of what I heard him muttering to himself:"...woman with big t*ts..." A bit odd I thought.All became clear sometime later when Maxwell sent letters to the editors of all the national newspapers,after (I think it was) the Evening Standard printed something that upset him.Cole mentioned that Maxwell had told him that all this trouble could have been avoided,if only they'd sent a woman with big t*ts round to the editor of the Standard.I don't know how much money Bob Cole was paid as Maxwell's spokesman,but clearly every penny of it was hard-earned.

[@martinkillips180]

Quite wonderful to hear these great wits chatting.

[@johncrwarner]

Oxford Brookes University took over Headington Hall (the grandest council house in the country) and on a guided tour of the facilities years after his demise there was still in the window on the grand stair a huge stain glass representation of the Bouncing Czech as I think Private Eye named him.

[@Rob.Martin]

I think the phrase was "A fat cheque for a fat Chech" or something like that. Either way Eye and Hislop have a great way with words.

[@julielevinge266]

& captain Bob 🤣

[@darreng745]

@@Rob.Martin I have just written a big fat cheque to a big fat Czech was what Hislop said

[@wolfeflambe]

I got a bollocking from the vice dean in Maxwells old office once when I was at Oxford Brookes.

[@th8257]

That generation seemed to provide a bumper crop of very rich, very unpleasant men. Apart from Maxwell, we had Tiny Rowland, James Goldsmith and Rupert Murdoch.

[@stuartburton1167]

Wouldn't surprise me if the bouncing Czech was one of the people protecting Jimmy Saville

[@shamteal8614]

A close relation of mine worked in one of Maxwell's offices and regularly experienced his strange behavior, he concluded Maxwell was mad and quite frightening.

[@lorenzomagazzeni5425]

Criminals often use the "mad" act. Joy "mad" Gallo was a NY gangster that used that shtik - Pesci looked like a boy scout.

[@bobikdylan]

I remember reading a piece by a Guardian reporter just after he disappeared off his yatch. The reporter found that Maxwell had spent his last month sailing around the Med dropping in at casinos. He claimed that Maxwell had been dropping up to a million a night at the tables (Mirror Group pension money). One interesting sidenote was that casino staff said that he never played with Arabs. Not because he didn't like them, but because they were in a higher league. The mind boggles at how the world's richest live.

[@VickersDoorter]

I recall having to sit for an hour next to this slug during the Jean Michel Jarre London Docklands concert on a freezing rainy night in 1988. Lucky me.

[@kgarrett1404]

You should have asked for your money back!

[@nikoscosmos]

I was once offered a job by one of his companies...interviewed in Mirror building. Didn't accept it thank goodness.

[@davidjma7226]

Me too. I asked what the noise was on the roof - the told me 'the ego has landed' !!

[@effyleven]

@@davidjma7226 "Ego..?" Ha, ha! Briwyant, that! Ta.

[@nickjung7394]

Funnily enough, I was doing a bit of technical research for the Mirror in 1984 with the possibility of a job at the end of it. I walked in to office of the chap I was doing the work for to be told "I'm off. I'm not working for Maxwell". I knew of Maxwell's reputation and never went to the Holborn building again. A close call!

[@schnitzel1984]

After he died he was taken to Israel where he was treated as a hero Speaks volumes…

[@shuddupeyaface]

I used to work with a man who lost his pension in this sad saga. He was in his 60s and forced to work order picking in a warehouse.

[@christinestanding]

Yes, I knew someone who lost her pension after working in Purgatory Press.

[@johnnyboy62parker39]

Not many people know that sea levels rose by 2mm when he “fell” overboard

[@darreng745]

The geologists in my Uni class were joking about a big upthrust of a new land mass in the Atlantic when he was found floating in the sea

[@arthurrytis6010]

@johnnyboy62parker. It’s a known fact Great Whites like blubber . Pity one wasn’t about on that day.

[@Peter-ov6xh]

I love Francis Wheen's impersonation of Maxwell.

[@dennisgreene7164]

Back then Maxwell was a one-off. Today we are engulfed in a fatslide of people who want to be him.

[@wuffothewonderdog]

Including everyone on the Commons and Lords.

[@damonroberts7372]

Absolute psychopath. The apple didn't fall far from the tree.

[@DeaconFrost2010]

So true. Just look at what happened with a beloved daughter named Ghislaine…

[@malakai651]

No one to my knowledge has ever explained how he could steal all the money from the company pension fund to prop up his business without anyone else knowing, I find this quite incredible. A company has a CEO a financial director various others working in accounts as well as all of the other directors.

[@cellarman1223]

Kevin Maxwell must have had a good idea of his Dad having his fingers in the till. Check out Tom Bower's biographies of the fat fraud The Outsider and The Final Days.

[@davidjma7226]

Yep. He was feared even by his own sons - apart from one who escaped to S America. That's why.

[@c2757]

I imagine Donald Trump would be able to tell you how that is done. He is a very knowledgeable man when it comes to keeping what is going on in his company away from scrutiny, just like Cap'n Bob.

[@alexmarshall4331]

Do you remember when his sons had to apply for Legal Aid!!! It was after uncle Bob had lived up to his name and they were somehow faced with having to become "defendants" 👉🇬🇧👈🙄⚠️🚮

[@malakai651]

@@alexmarshall4331 I do, and I remember seeing them arriving at court in their savile row suits. Frankly I would have been happy to see them left with just their underwear. I would lay odds that they still ended with a good pension, shameful!

[@steverichmond7142]

My first job as a junior accountant was to go on the audit of Pergamon Press. The stock values were an absolute fiction. Books the company had been given were valued at the equivalent of £15, and there were a lot of them. Everybody was scared to death of him and his cronies. When it all fell to bits the judge said Maxwell was unfit to be a director and was barred for life. Despite this within 4 years he was the director of several technical publishing houses.

[@wuffothewonderdog]

Thick brown envelopes surrepticiously passed to Labour politicians eased his way back.

[@steverichmond7142]

The biggest recipient of back handers was Michael Heseltine, who 'inherited' certain assets not cash. @@wuffothewonderdog

[@kidmohair8151]

can we please have something similar for the Decrepit Murdoch soon

[@stanguy4491]

Well said.

[@andyrob3259]

And the BBC forcing pensioners to pay for licenses. That’s akin to stealing.

[@kidmohair8151]

@@andyrob3259 the way other people are content to live isn't necessarily the way you want to

[@kidmohair8151]

@@andyrob3259 foreskin to stealing

[@luckycusack49]

@@andyrob3259 load of Shite! The Tories did that Con job on the pensioners. Knob!

[@NimLeeGuy]

I am the proud owner of two filing cabinets that once belonged to Mr Maxwell. Proud because I got them for nothing. But I won't say how.

[@nickjung7394]

Anything in them?

[@InArcadiaSum]

Many years ago, I worked for a company in the AGB Research Group, and my office was in Barnard's Inn, just around from the Mirror building. I had to go there for some reason, and had the misfortune to meet Maxwell in the foyer. Not a very nice man, on a fleeting first impression. After I left that company, but kept in touch with a lot of people still there, Maxwell bought AGB, and many friends and acquaintances, some of whom had worked there from the time that Sir Bernard Audley started it in 1962, had their entire pensions stolen by him. My first impression was correct, but I failed to recognise that this was also a fraud and a criminal.

[@nickbarber2080]

Eric Weinstein asks a very pertinant question: At the time that a substantial fortune (Maxwell's) disappears into thin air....another fortune (Epstein's) appears out of equally thin air. Could they,as Private Eye might put it,be in some way related?

[@jonathaneffemey944]

Thanks for posting.

[@jeanmyers1787]

I remember just before he died he was about to sue Private Eye, then he was dead.

[@HerbertDuckshort]

When malignant sociopath Robert Maxwell owned Derby County Football Club he regularly phoned manager Arthur Cox in the small hours of the morning to give expert “friendly advice” on team selection.

[@justme-hh4vp]

Was that before he owned Oxford United? He seemed to be more hands off as chairman there because they used to sing "He's fat, he's round, he's never at the ground! Captain Bob, Captain Bob..."

[@tomthumbelina70]

Maxwell family is definitely dodgy in many ways

[@chrisyboy666]

What ever made you arrive @ that conclusion I heard…he was charming chap…when not doing 12 hour shifts @ the homeless shelter he would often be found manning the phone lines @ the Samaritans…And there are the countless hours he spent serving soup in the various refuge centres….if he was still alive today he would probably be prime minister….

[@thomascarroll9556]

Didn’t his son Kevin screw the taxpayer for over £10M in legal aid to get off tax fiddles!

[@likklej8]

He was kidnapped from his yacht by aqua people and taken to Atlantis where he is in the City Zoo.

[@alisonhilll4317]

It's just another coincidence, all these missing Mossad agents are not really dead, their alive and well living in Tele Aivi.

[@likklej8]

@@alisonhilll4317 good post respect and stay safe

[@johnbuckland626]

It must be a Shih Tzu

[@09Magyck]

A fhink you will find Ghislaine is a trained Sea Diver and Can Drive Submarines???

[@colinstewart1432]

Is that the same Tom Bower that wrote The Red Web book ? A very interesting story about Britain running agents against the Baltic States in the Cold War.

[@7dazza1968]

This bastard bought Rediffusion and rebranded it maxwell TV . My father worked for RediFfusionand then Maxwell TV for 32 years and maxwell went overboard with my fathers pension . My fathers pension was worth £1.70 a month when he passed away 6 months ago 😡😞

[@MsVanorak]

😳ooohh . . . . so sorry, completely not fair. this ghislaine stuff is'nt over yet - members of the public were manipulated to create seedy, sensational news. he had contacts/was working with KGB and MI6 so drugs, phone tapping, stalking etc. consider who was paying for exclusives in the jeremy bamber case. all of these papers used stories created by private mercenary detectives. i know stuff but have been threatened and shot at for going to certain places.

[@memoir4you]

Sorry to hear that, man, jeez that's awful.

[@kidmohair8151]

it says a lot about the society that allows such people to become arbiters of "opinion".... Al Capone always described himself as "just another businessman"

[@jamesjack6769]

He once said of his time in WW2 that he had single handedly knocked out a Tiger tank with a bazooka 🙄. That was proven to be one of his delusional fantasies.

[@phililpb]

turns out he shot an unarmed german civilian

[@Bluedog4712]

He was awarded the military cross by field marshal Montgomery for storming a German machine gun nest, don’t think that is the same thing you are talking about, and the medal was certainly never revoked!

[@_Mentat]

He was big in the black market

[@andyrob3259]

@@Bluedog4712 the elite turn a blind eye to these things. Cyril Smith’s knighthood was never revoked either. The list could go on.

[@Bluedog4712]

@@andyrob3259 not sure you understand! His act of bravery was an act of bravery…..how can that be revoked?

[@JonniePolyester]

Funny story I heard , possibly on Radio 4 about 10 years ago - a well known journalist approached Alistair Campbell, who worked for Maxwell I think at the Mirror at the time, presumably circa 1991 at some media do, saying how sorry he was to hear about the passing of Captain Bob.. Bob… Bob….. where upon Campbell punched him in the stomach. ( Captain Bob being the was the long running Maxwell cartoon in the Eye, of course)

[@jonathandyton7790]

There was a Bob Maxwell joke book and I recall that story was the opening paragraph, I always wondered if it was Campbell! A friend of mines Grandfather and mother were his driver and housekeeper and the stories they had...

[@vestibulate]

JonniePolyester The offending hack was Michael White of the Guardian, who while a greasy lickspittle of the establishment, was not an actual war criminal- unlike Campbell, who supervised the assembly of the "Dodgy Dossier" designed to land Britain in an illegal war.

[@dandare1001]

@@jonathandyton7790 Tell us the stories!

[@marc21091]

It would have been Michael White, then of The Guardian.

[@LeofromFreo]

Seems to be a totally upstanding family all ‘round.

[@Norvik_-ug3ge]

Can't help thinking his ownership of the only prominent Labour Party supporting newspaper in the UK, shielded him from criticism he would otherwise have received.

[@russellnixon9981]

So true

[@grahambuckerfield4640]

He brought it in 1984, 5 years into Thatcher's government. 15 years before he was dubbed 'unfit to run a public company', now he could run what was then the biggest or close second biggest selling paper at the time, make of that what you will. He also rode the wave of deregulation of financial regulation and standards of company ownership generally of the 80's.

[@Norvik_-ug3ge]

@@grahambuckerfield4640 I didn't mean to suggest Maxwell himself held left-wing views, I think he just saw an opportunity to buy a mass market newspaper, much like Murdoch with The Sun, and thereby gain influence. Also he was Jewish, which would have garnered him a good degree of support in the British media, business, legal circles et cetera. The fact that he feigned tears in court over the Eichmann cartoon shows him to have been a very cynical individual.

[@luckycusack49]

Erm…The Guardian? Or do you mean Red Top Rag! Which Thatcher Allowed to be purchased by a ruthless agent of a Right wing government?

[@thomashealey291]

He was a long time Israeli intelligence operative

[@dogphlap6749]

That is true. At the time there was a strong rumour that it was Israeli secret service operatives that killed him (perhaps he had absconded with some of their pension money too).

[@markdaly1903]

@@dogphlap6749 he was given full israeli state honors

[@davidjma7226]

He was a 'useful idiot' to Mossad.

[@nigelft]

@@markdaly1903 I remember that funeral ... iirc, he is buried in the Israeli equivalent to Arlington, and specifically the area where those held in the most esteem are interred ... ... but just because he was given the Israeli equivalent to a full State Funeral, doesn't necessarily mean he _wasn't_ , potentially, bumped off by Mossad, for even the CIA calls them formidable ... ... in fact, what better 'cover' for a 'wet affair' that to give the person, killed by one of the most secretive of Foriegn Intelligence Agencies, a State Funeral by the same state that ordered his assassination ... Talk about 'Plausible Deniability' ...

[@mintywebb]

I was thinking of Boris.

[@mark.tiggerman5178]

Ask ANYONE who worked for The Mirror ! The Family are Tarred with the same brush sadly ,!

[@hornetobiker]

sadly?

[@garfstiglz3981]

Apparently Maxwell was so unpopular even the pathologist refused to carry out the autopsy. He only relented once he heard there might be a big fat Czech involved 😂

[@johnholkham2420]

Only single hand destroyed the company system. Company pensions never the same again.

[@jojojojo4332]

his daughter was corrupt

[@heathenbrewer7205]

A sign of the times when some look back a Maxwell with sympathetic eyes. A very interesting and humorous article thanks.

[@williamchick6649]

What has always surprise me With Robert Maxwell (Captain Bob) is normally when somebody like him who dies in mysterious circumstances after about 10 to 15 years, you start to find out what he was doing and what he was up to and how he made his money and the people and Governments who helped him, but in the case of Robert Maxwell nothing, Which says to me one thing what ever he was getting up to it was very dodgy, there are a lot of people and governments out there who are at Best Very in embarrassed or very frightened about The truth coming out about Maxwell.

[@raymonddavies6507]

@@diverguy3556 The question is, did he really die? Was it his body washed up, and who identified it? Then rushed off to Israel and buried within 24 hours? I wonder

[@raymonddavies6507]

@@diverguy3556 It was the family members which identified the body and had it shifted to Israel within the 24 hour period. We only have their word it was Maxwell and not somebody else. Question was it Maxwell who was buried?

[@jamesjack6769]

Maybe like Hitler he's living quietly in Argentina. 😄

[@khutt19]

I would have thought he was too in love with himself to keep quiet, but if it was MOSAD that got to his yacht to either kill him or capture him and keep him quiet, it would be easier to kill him. He did not seem to me to be the type to lay low and keep his mouth shut,.Mind you ,when the US went after Bin Laden we have only their word for it the caught him and threw him into the sea,I mean,why do that,why not put him on trial,,well,to put him on trial they would really have to have captured,when the truth was he was probably already dead. Lies and smokescreen,. It is strange in my view that the train robbers got 30 years, yes the Maxwell robbers got of scot free, and we are told thats justice, its a joke.

[@None-zc5vg]

@@khutt19 The Bush family were close to the Bin Laden clan, so maybe Osama was transferred from his Pakistani hideout back to Arabia in a private jet, while the 'buried-at-sea' body was an innocent party who was murdered to take Osama's place.

[@JONNOG88]

Don't forget that the Mirror was/is just as embroiled in the phone hacking scandal. As Murdoch's NOTW. I wonder if Maxwell put in the "groundwork". For those sort of tactics??

[@julielevinge266]

Peter Cook said he’d get his cheque book out & wave it at him🤣🤣🤣

[@DavidBrown-sr8di]

A lot of pensioners haven't forgotten him

[@jamesdean1143]

Alastair Campbell tells of the time when he was working at The Mirror in 1984, at the height of the Ethiopian famine (Band Aid and all that). Maxwell flew over, principally for a photo op, threw a few Mars bars at the starving children and then turned to Campbell and said : “My work here is done ! Time to fly back to the UK and solve the miners’ strike !”

[@Nosmo90]

10:21: Very well-done, Mr. Hislop, very well-done! xD

[@blxtothis]

Tom Bower’s marvellous biography is a must read!

[@wuffothewonderdog]

Tom wrote two of them, Maxwell the Outsider, followed by Maxwell, the Final Verdict.

[@jamesdean1143]

I read his biography. Particularly funny was when he was staying in a premier hotel suite in Edinburgh. He fancied a Chinese, so he rang the best Chinese in Edinburgh and put in an order for 14 people, for delivery. When the restaurant told him that the maximum order was for 12 persons, he threatened to sue them (as per usual) so he got his delivery. He then invited a colleague into his room to share the food. When the colleague asked “shouldn’t we wait for the other people ?” Maxwell replied “what other people ?”.

[@stuartpenman6387]

he was Mossad, when is this going to be acknowledged?

[@johnferguson40]

The Scottish Daily Record was a first class newspaper until Maxwell got a hold of it.

[@eenie1234]

Robert Maxwell... the man who found out you need better screws on a yachts grab handle.

[@tonygingell1207]

According to some rumors, he was given a push.

[@None-zc5vg]

@@tonygingell1207 Maybe he didn't die: they could have arranged to substitute for Bob a dead freshly-killed lookalike (hard to find, I know) and arranged a fixed post-mortem (see 'Kenneth Lay of Enron') while he was alive in Israel.

[@Checobeep]

@@None-zc5vg Just use one of the Krays.

[@fbridge]

The first mate was guilty of his manslaughter. He misunderstood the command "throw the flat anchor overboard".

[@greatunwashed1856]

Brian , made me laugh out loud,👏

[@yanikkunitsin1466]

Is that Andrew Hunter Murray from "No such thing as a fish" I hear?

[@patricaomas8750]

What is it about media magnets, do they sniff the ink?

[@jeupham]

RMs birth name was Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch and became known as the "Bouncing Czech"

[@stephenreeds3632]

I believe he called himself du Maurier at one point, a WW2 hero. And a Captain.

[@francishunt562]

It's a very murky past : no proof that Hoch was his real name. A life built on lies and shadowy dealings

[@willieckaslike]

I well remember Mr. HISLOP'S words on losing a court case. " I've just given a fat cheque to another fat CHECH" !

[@casteretpollux]

Half an hour and mainly knockabout 'personality' issues. Had a State burial in Tel Aviv. Daughter ran a massive honeypot operation. Did he work for State agencies? UK? Israeli? US?

[@MsVanorak]

KGB, MI6 and israeli

[@jeanlind7540]

He stole US secrets for Israelis

[@peterbradshaw8018]

Goldman Sachs had to pay damages to the pensioners if I remember correctly a very good trader from Goldman got Goldman mixed up with Maxwell.

[@evanleebodies]

'The fat Czech with a fat cheque'....how un-pc would it be now to describe cap'n Bob.

[@jamescoope4427]

After Ian's performance on WatO, he obviously has the old man's smutter too..

[@Vordigon1]

Im a simple bulgarian, i hear bulgaria mentioned, i press like

[@tenga3tango]

the one that got away, hook, line and sinker

[@jeanmyers1787]

I remember the last writ Ian was on HIGNFY.

[@tldrvince4705]

Public life is just some sick game and they know how to play it best

[@andrewjones2132]

Interesting stuff about Peter Jay, never heard that before.

[@johnpirie4804]

Could charm the birds off the trees, then shoot them!

[@NmpK24]

Always remember the old Spitting Image sketch with Maxwell as King Midas, 'Everything I touch turns to shit'. Spot on.

[@Ken_oh545]

Ah yes, the 'merdas' touch

[@stevendurrant1724]

The bouncing Czech.

[@jimjiminyjaroo300]

Wasn’t he a triple agent also?

[@jonathonjubb6626]

Yeah, that rings a bell...

[@markdaly1903]

@@jonathonjubb6626 buried in Israel with full honors, not long after he fell off the boat

[@MsVanorak]

KGB, MI6 and MOSSAD some say

[@happychappy7115]

Ghislaine never stood a chance

[@andylumehriverofliferev.2254]

What is a charlatan? As you just mentioned here on this video. ❤

[@dereks1264]

What I don't understand is how "Private Eye" and Ian can afford to fight all the lawsuits they get stuck with.

[@geezerbutler4582]

Peter Cook was the owner and happy to pay

[@jamesdean1143]

Maxwell once said : “Ask anyone and they’ll all tell you, anyone dealing with Bob Maxwell is paid the full 12 Annas on the Rupee.” The problem was that there were 16 Annas to the Rupee.

[@igolfjtweetler4097]

I remember he showed up in Edinburgh to 'save' the boycotted Commonwealth Games and bullied his way into the city chambers for the pr. All a show about him and much like Trump.

[@JohnWilson-yg7ko]

TDS is strong with this one.

[@nigelft]

@@JohnWilson-yg7ko Granted, full-blown TDS is pretty nasty ... ... but given how he treated his fellow heads of state, shoving a few aside, just so he could stand in front of everyone else, doesn't mean President Trump can't be not only just impolite, but bullish, too. And whilst President Biden has his own issues, he tends not to insult people to their faces ... In fact, a good question would be to ask if both Presidents Bush act in the same, mocking, way to those they disliked ... Even President H. W. Bush acted far much more as a diplomat, something which at least which President H. Bush tried to emulate. If anything, what America needs right now is a person whom is a combination of Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan, Bush Snr, and, of course, Lincoln himself. Even Nixon did better when visiting China, than Trump did in visiting North Korea, with the only substantive thing in the joint agreement was the commitment the repatriation of remains of Americans killed in the Korean War, back to the US, and that the US will assist in returning the bodies of North Korean fishermen, of those infamous 'Ghoast Ships', usually fishing boats that, as one hypothesis goes, get lost in stormy off-shore conditions, in the South China Sea, and die due to, possibly, a combination of hypothermia, and, due to the all-too commonly occurring malnutrition by their fellow citizens, means any rations running out/lost, tends to, going by medical evidence, lead to starvation, before the boats wash ashore on, usually, Japanese coastline. The few survivors require treatment almost next to High Dependency Wards, and some being sent directly to the ICU, due to how gravely ill those men were, and continue to be ... But the rest ...? Almost the exact same thing was said by Kim Jong-il, from the moment he became the 'Supreme Leader', to every single American President, Democrat and Republican, alike. Even their relationship with Russia is pretty damn rocky, and their main patreon, China, only slightly less so. Even the Vietnamese are wary of them, with - very - unconfirmed reports that India and Pakistan are nervous of them ... Kim Jong-un saying he wants to 'de-nuclearise' the whole of the Korean Peninsula ... whilst greenlighting more conducted missile and nuclear testing than his father and grandfather, combined ... sending a missile way across Japanese airspace, and landing on the far opposite side, isn't just a warning to Tokyo, but Seoul, Islamabad, New Delhi, and even, perhaps, Beijing ... President Trump could've used that moment to reel in Jong-un's nuclear, ambitions, by, say, providing a quid-pro-quo in the form of providing engineering to help create civilian nuclear reactors, and focus the missile testing to civilian/scientific endeavours, rather than military, inclusive of an aid package, that includes a full scale, national implementation, of Golden Rice, that has tested vastly more vitamin content that just white rice ... ... but no; hence, a great opportunity lost ... Even other, Republican, Americans were somewhat bemused - in a bad way - of how he treated our (British) Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, whom has outlived more American Presidents, and Britsh Prime Ministers, than even Castro, as if she was just another woman in her 90's ... even Margaret Thatcher, whom, as Prime Minister, wasn't called 'The Iron Lady' for nothing, called Queen Elizabeth "a most remarkable woman" ... but, from the footage taken of President Trump's first State Visit to the UK, it was almost as if he treated her as a little old granny, rather than a fellow Head of State. In fact, not for nothing does our Armed Forces (including myself, for an all too brief a time), pledge allegiance to the Crown and Monarch, rather than whomever is in government at the time. I doubt things will ever be pushed this far, but if a government goes completely toe-to-toe with the UK Armed Forces, let's just say it would be the our own Civil War all over again, but, this time, without an obvious Oliver Cromwell, any Parliamentary Forces gathered, will be completely wiped out ... But I seriously digressed ... My point is this: President Biden clearly has issues. But President Trump wasn't all that great, either. Aside from failing to create a brand-new Border Wall between the US, and Mexico, at most, only a stepping up in the repair of the existing fence seems to have been achieved, with certainly not Mexico paying for that, there were, and are, many issues he took a laissez faire attitude towards, except when it came to anything directly involving him .... he promised greater outputs, but then got into a quite unnecessary spat with main export/import partners, including, yes, China, leaving many a struggling arable farmers, especially those whom produce many tons of soybeans, in a lurch, as China refused to import them. And, no, Mr. Trump, trade wars are never easy to win, as somewhere, there is always a concession/compromise made ... Granted, it usually seems like the First Term is spent doing just enough to gain a 2nd consecutive term, with, even more so, a majority in both House and Senate in the midterms, meaning, in my opinion, only the two last years does any President achieve anything of note, bar a very few exceptions, such as President H. W. Bush, whom, as I seem to recall being Vice-President under President Reagan, was able to hit the ground, running. But President Trump didn't, and it was clear that international diplomacy wasn't in his vocabulary. And as for Domestic issues ... doesn't he, as President, be able to use his power to order both those in charge of the Departments of Homeland Security, and Justice, to throughly investigate BLM/BAMN/ANTIFA; and allow State Governors to fast track requests to rescind the _Posse Comitatus_ Act, Federalising the National Guard, as soon it was clear that the local, and state, LEOs, was being overwhelmed. In fact, where were the ATF in Portland, if not the same people whom enabled President Trump to walk to the 'Church of Presidents', by shoving protesters aside, wearing almost sanitised Uniforms, meaning it was difficult to pin-point whom they were working for ... shouldn't either the Homeland Security/Department of Justice have a Federal QRF ability, to contain State riots, that threatens neighbouring States ...? Altogether, granted, it would've been amazing to see a total outsider to what carries on, on the inside of the Washington Beltway, tear through the often stagnated politics. It would've been incredible to have a cabinet full of expertise, per appointed position of Secretary of State for each department, especially well regarded within each department, as being able to get things done ... and be given the budget to do so ... Instead, he filled those posts, in my opinion, if I may, with appointments depending upon donorship towards the Republican party; for instance, having a Secretary of State for Education, with little to no experience, nor expertise, in the complexities of education, especially in inner-cities, not least handling the huge student debt incurred via large number of loans taken out, that is valued, in total, many billions of dollars, that is, so I believe, now over $1 _Trillion_ ... As the tiny matchhead that was mortgage delinquency rates that, from what I can tell, was enough to trigger the chain reaction that was one fuze chord to 2008, it may well be that something similar, with student loans, maybe a fuze chord to the next one ... yet that challenge was not met, at least publicly, by Secretary DeVoss. And, in reading, and listening, to Republican concerns, over her appointment, at district level, it seems that they really weren't sure how, say, a public, inner city, High School functions, despite being in charge, effectively, of all of them. I grew up in one (abet in London, England), during the 1980's through to the 1990's, and the phrase 'Blackboard Jungle' basically summarised what it was like. Yes, there were teachers that was invested in teaching, but many just weren't ... ... and why appoint a person whom openly said that the EPA be abolished, be appointed as the Head of the EPA, especially as atmospheric pollution, by medium, to heavy, industry, keeps growing, as is marine pollution by plastic. But, instead, he found, admittedly often hilarious, means of spending his budget, such, as an example, the soundproof 'phone boothe', something that not even the President has ... Hence my contention isn't one shouldn't just be hyperfocused over what any particular President does, abet that is still vitally important, but rather also apply the same scrutiny to examine what each appointed Secretary of State of (X) Department actually does, especially positive outcomes, but without neglecting the negative ... as I think Lincoln noted, although the President is clothed with immense power, he can't be everywhere at once, and relies heavily on the expertise of those in subordinate positions in both within the White House itself, and especially the Cabinet, to keep things moving, especially when finding such talented people isn't always easy, especially during, in the more modern era, everything after empanelled appointments committees were created ... often leading to a whole slew of 'empty' Federal positions ... Deeds, not just only words ...

[@colinwhite5355]

I do wonder, is laughter the only way we can safely process the likes of Maxwell, Trump, Ceausescu and their ilk as, should we even try to accept/understand the enormity of their pervasive badness, we’d almost certainly go completely mad.

[@allenomalley4014]

You missed off Blair, Biden and Son or the Clinton’s which made me laugh

[@nigeleaston7993]

Don`t forget the latest contender, who now sits in no.10.We can only hope he tumbles red faced and food stained tie from one freebie Garrick Club nosh to another and ,subsequently, into the Thames. RIP BOJO......

[@stephenarnold6359]

Maxwell also maintained that he learned English in a month, having no previous knowledge. But lumping him together with Trump? This is typical TDS of the feeblest and most inane kind. To be sure, Trump is boastful, blustering, a womanizer, but also one of the smartest operators and a person of exceptional strength of character (or, his detractors would say, merely thick skin), however much you may be reluctant to admit it. To keep going when half his "own" party were against him, all the main stream media (which has never been so powerful) vilified him daily as a racist, a bigot, a fascist a Russian tool, etc. Smears and slander all lapped up eagerly by the dim and gullible masses like you. Begone, craven cur

[@petermills542]

@@stephenarnold6359 You are amusing. But not intentionally.

[@hachwarwickshire1718]

I'm sorry ... but have you read what you've written ? Do you not understand that Trump was voted in because of people like you ?

[@1nfiniteSeek3r]

Sounds like he went to the Armand Hammer school of public representation.

[@efnissien]

It was sad that the once great journo Joe Haines was still backing Maxwell as the evidence of his financial dealings was breaking. Apparently Maxwell had a trick when dealing with legal cases he knew he couldn't win, shortly before a trial he & his legal team would apply for a adjournment on the grounds that they had a complex legal argument and needed more time to prepare. And they would do this a couple of times, all the time bigging up the talk that they had a secret piece of evidence that needed to be checked, all the while slowly draining the oppositions finances until their legal team (mistakenly) believed that they couldn't afford to go on and risk losing. So the opposition would settle out of court.

[@louisdisbury9759]

He never Jumped over Board he spent the rest of his Days in Israel.

[@suzyqualcast6269]

PE used to show in DMB's outer office. As did Search and Spot light. RIP the guvnor.

[@welshpete12]

I knew he had been doing something, hush hush during the war . So I looked him up and was surprised to find he had been awarded the Military Cross . You don't get those for nothing !

[@Trevor_Austin]

I refuse to believe a thieving, scheming turd like Maxwell did anything courageous, worthwhile or honourable. Ever. He probably didn’t think even wipe his arse.

[@bsastarfire250]

Not usually , but doling out medals is part of military BS .

[@_Mentat]

He was mainly running contraband (according to his wife's biography of him.)

[@actionjackson9385]

Don't you be so sure.

[@kgarrett1404]

He was being investigated for war crimes in Germany when he slipped to his watery grave. The financial investigation noose was tightening at the same time.

[@omerroucoux1186]

I liked it when he joined the Drifters...

[@davemills6881]

Best songs - Save the last swim for me. (Something like that!) Under the boardwalk. Down on the beach tonight. I've got sand in my shoes. Was Maxwell ever in The Coasters? I believe Status Quo wrote a tribute to Maxwell - Down Down, Deeper and Drown, Get Down, Deeper and Drown.

[@alejandrayalanbowman367]

It's a pity that his sexual beliefs and his sexual mistreatment of Ghislaine didn't come out - they could have been brought up in her defence.

[@annettehadley9718]

Did He Jump or was He pushed ?

[@francishunt562]

Assassinated by Mossad.