‘I’ve got no sympathy for them whatsoever’
The story of a man who went from humble surroundings in Snodland to joining Rupert Murdoch in revolutionising the newspaper industry has been told in a new book.
Tom Bell’s rise is revealed in ‘The Man Who Never Sleeps’ the affectionate nickname the newspaper mogul gave him as part of his efforts to take on the print unions in the 1980s.
The Wapping Dispute was a year-long effort by unions to block distribution of papers within Murdoch’s News International group after production switched to a new plant in east London.
Mr Bell described the strike action as “more akin to a war zone” as one person died, 1,500 arrests were made and 574 police officers injured throughout its duration.
It was his job at TNT to mastermind delivery of tens of millions of papers past the pickets to homes up and down the country and one that ultimately proved successful.
“W a p p i n g c h a n g e d everything,” he said.
And it did - ‘hot-metal’ printing methods were consigned to history, and politically it saw a huge decline in influence for the trade unions.
“I’ve got no sympathy for them whatsoever,” said Mr Bell, who earned the nickname for his relentless planning of the operation.
“I remember walking into a print works in Farringdon Road and there were people in sleeping bags saying goodnight to each other.
“If there was a fire drill, it emerged that 600 people had signed in for work but only 250 of them were actually there.
“It was criminal what management let them get away with.” Mr Bell has since gone on to raise £3 million for mentally, physically and socially disadvantaged children - for which he received an OBE from the Queen. But after moving from Scotland as a child, he says it was while living in Holborough Road that he grew into the man who’d go on to make it to the very top. He recalls that if you lived behind a blue door, your dad worked for Blue Circle Cement and if you lived behind a brown one, your dad worked for the Townsend Hook paper mill - ironically later bought out by Murdoch himself.
“Even at a young age I found it bizarre that the colour of a door could dictate the destiny of so many people,” reads the book, authored by award-winning ex-journalist David Walker. “They seemed resigned to working at a cement factory or a paper mill. This wasn’t going to fit in with my aspirations.” He recalls not having a proper bathroom and instead having to wash in a tin bath in front of the fire.
Mr Bell added: “But my upbringing in Snodland certainly helped me and shaped who I would later become.”
‘The Man Who Never Sleeps’ is available to buy now.