PRIVATE EYE JOINS STREET OF SHAME

23-02-2008

Not content with printing porkies about Birmingham Council’s chief executive, muck-raking magazine Private Eye has been ripping off The Stirrer.

As we reported earlier this week, the latest issue of Lord Gnome’s normally impressive organ is telling tales about an alleged affair involving Stephen Hughes – a story rejected by this website because, er, it’s untrue (see link here).

We’ve just clocked that the same edition also has the story of a Birmingham Council van, pulled over by bailiffs at the side of the road in a scene “described as ‘like a TV cop drama’”.

Eagle eyed readers will note that it bears an uncanny resemblance to a piece published in The Stirrer’s Birmingham Mail column recently (http://tinyurl.com/2lf5s4).

The difference, of course, is that we used good old-fashioned journalistic endeavour to get the story - while they just sat on their fat, overpaid arses in London and nicked it. Trebles all round.

Perhaps someone will earn a tenner by submitting the two pieces to the ailing rag’s “Lookalikes” column? It's certainly more than we've been paid for their use of the tale.

Any more of this and we'll have to set up an "Eyewatch" column - either that, or cancel our subscription!