Conrad
Black had just bought the Daily Telegraph.
He was on his way to the peerage he coveted - Lord Black,
indeed! - and he marched into the New York bureau
of the Telegraph, where I then worked,
with all the pomp of his great hero, Napoleon.
"This office," he
thundered, fist banging, "has done more
to damage the reputation of the United States
than any other." He paid us now,
so we would serve his interests in buttering
up Washington.
Black's arrogance, bombast
and stupidity were on display from the get-go.
But not the greed that will have him facing the
criminal fraud charges lodged in Chicago today,
threatening 40 years in jail. His undoing came
with a woman, when columnist Barbara Amiel fulfilled
her own ambitions by becoming Lady Black. Conrad
had converted to Rome for his first marriage,
and
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Upstate Downstate |
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| charles
laurence says Lord Black’s
Napoleon complex was his undoing |
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made
much of his Papist propriety. Lady Black, long experienced
in the tender arts of marriage, conquered his inhibitions
and let loose the Colossus.
He turned out to be a colossal fool.
Black assumed that America would love him. But the
$80 million Black is accused of looting belonged mostly
to American shareholders. (He denies all charges).
As a British peer who is really Canadian,
Black is the perfect fall-guy. He can be gibbeted to
prove that corporate malfeasance will be punished,
without sacrificing further members of the Bush/Cheney
club.
Black was too full of himself to
see it coming. Just as he was always too full of himself
to realise that Napoleon was a poor role model: he
was French, and he lost. 
FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER
22
 Tough
times for the Barclay brothers
 Last
week: Cormac McCarthy returns
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