Alan Watkins’ own expenses scandal

Fleet Street legend Watkins became a craftsman not only in writing but also in terms of claiming expenses. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

As someone who worked with the late political columnist Alan Watkins while comment editor of the Independent on Sunday, I greatly enjoyed Peter Oborne’s account of him (An education from the master columnist of Fleet Street, 1 September). I was amused to read that Watkins’ editor at the Sunday Express, John Junor, was a careful monitor of expenses. Perhaps that is why Watkins became such a craftsman in that area as well as writing.

At a dinner held in 2003 to mark Alan’s 70th birthday, Donald Trelford, his editor of 17 years at the Observer, recalled that he had submitted expenses for a lunch at the Garrick Club which appeared to be for one. Trelford’s memo to Watkins pointed out that expenses were for entertaining contacts, not subsidising journalists’ living costs. He got a one-line response from Alan: “I ate; he drank.” 
Catherine Pepinster
Editor, The Tablet