Axegrinder has lost count of the number of juicy stories he has had shot down at the last minute by a denial.
But reading the Daily Mail diary today he wonders whether he has been going about things the wrong way. By running the denial on day two you can get two page leads for the price of one.
On Tuesday we had a story leading the Sebastian Shakespeare spread headlined: "Palace for hire again as bank bosses dine at Buck House".
The story said:
FIVE months after he was criticised for hosting a Buckingham Palace dinner paid for by the American bank J. P. Morgan, Prince Andrew is at it again.
I learn that the Queen's second son hosted a lavish dinner at the Palace last week for banks including J. P. Morgan, Barclays and HSBC, and the financial services company Icap. One of the firms is understood to have paid for the party.
But reading the Mail today it turns out that the Palace was not in fact for hire, as Andrew had paid for the dinner at mum's place himself.
Headline: "Now Palace admits: Andy paid for bank bosses' party."
Story:
While bankers have been the subject of vilification since the economic crisis of 2007, Prince Andrew is going to extraordinary lengths to court them. A palace spokesman has taken the unusual step of making public that the Duke of York footed the bill for a lavish dinner at Buckingham Palace for some of the City of London's richest bankers out of his own pocket. I can confirm that the dinner was paid for privately by the Duke,' says the spokesman.
When this column disclosed yesterday that Andrew, 54, had hosted the beano, which was attended by around 20 guests from the financial services industry including Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, the Palace had declined to say who funded it, other than to state it was paid for privately'."
Strangely the first story is no longer available on Mail Online:
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
