Ian Katz (London, Guardian): Dear Peter and Anthony: Maybe I overstated the notoriety of Lord Levy’s Friday night dinners by calling them "famous" in my piece about Ian Blair last Saturday, that you refer to here and here. But I’m a little surprised that neither of you – who know much more about the London political scene than me - have heard of them. I haven’t looked very hard but here are three articles, one in Peter’s own paper, that refer to them: in the Independent, the Daily Mail and the Times
And here’s another I wrote myself some years back. So I’m not quite sure what your ignorance of them proves exactly.
I don’t think I’d argue hugely with your characterisation of the events, except for the secretive bit, Peter: of course they were about New Labour networking and probably fundraising – I wrote as much in my piece about Levy some time back. And I’m sorry to disappoint, Peter, but I only ever went to one Levy dinner and I’ve written about it, which hardly makes me an accessory to some great lefty conspiracy of silence. I can’t, in all honesty, remember the names of anyone else who was present (the judge, despite your readiness to promote him to the high court was a fairly lowly immigration judge as I recall, and the ‘PFI tycoon’ – your words, not mine – was a private hospital boss. I have no idea whether he had anything to do with PFI.) If I could remember, though, I don’t think I’d be inclined to name them, at least any more inclined than you would be to tell me which contacts you have lunched with over the last few years. I wrote about the dinner because I thought it told the reader something interesting about the world Blair moved in, and how he moved in it. I don’t think the names of others present would tell the reader any more than my characterisation of the other guests already has.
And Anthony, I’m not sure your characterisation of my piece as an ‘embarrased mea culpa’ is altogether fair either. It’s true that I’m disappointed in him, which, is what I wrote, but I am not remotely embarassed, or apologetic, about anything I have written about him, least of all my original interview.
Now I must get back to my secret dinner.
