The real cost of a free lunch at the Express

It is an abject lesson for PRs and marketers that one free lunch can define the judgement of even George Pitcher (MW last week).

He excuses Richard Desmond’s foul-mouthed abuse of Germans and the Telegraph management team on the grounds that when Pitcher went to lunch at the Express, he found that Desmond “reminded him a bit of the late Tommy Cooper. He worked the table, seemed genuinely interested in people and was even quite self-effacing at times.”

Come to think of it, Neville Chamberlain had some pretty decent things to say about you-know-who after Munich back in 1938. And there’s no evidence that he even got a free lunch.

Jeremy Deedes

Deputy chairman and chief executive

Telegraph Group

London E14 5DT

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