146: Paul Foot Award: The Winner

Recorded at the Paul Foot Award ceremony in London, here is the announcement of this year’s winner - plus a bonus interview with last year’s champion Tristan Kirk about what has changed since he won.

Episode Transcript

Andy (00:00):
Page

Ian (00:00):
94, the Privat Eye Podcast.

Andy (00:03):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of page 94.
This is the Paul FootAwards winner Spectacular.
Over the last six days, you have heardall about the shortlisted entries
for this year's Paul Foot Award forcampaigning and investigative journalism.
Six fantastic stories.
We're gonna be finding out whohas actually won the big gong
and check in a moment's time.

(00:24):
Before that, though, we're gonnago to last year's winner, Tristan
Kirk of the Evening Standard to.
Us what his story was about,and more importantly, how things
have changed since last year.
So over to Tristan.

Tristen (00:38):
Yeah.
My reports were on, the Single Justiceprocedure, which is a, criminal
case, process, deals with hundreds ofthousands of allegations each year.
and there are deep flaws inthe system whereby people are
harshly and unjustly convicted.

(00:58):
In a system which is set up forcost cutting and efficiency and
not necessarily for fairness.
So my reports brought out some ofthose cases that pass through the
system against people with dementia.
People who are grieving deaths, who are.
Facing criminal convictions for notpaying bills there in their time of need

(01:20):
and, are reporting brought to the fore,some of those flaws, as well as some
of the other problems with the systemabout, targets being set for dealing
with justice, which obviously, leads to.
Efficiency being put above fairness.

Andy (01:34):
The details of the stories that you had found were shocking
because they, there were people beingprosecuted over really minor things.
People who had never doneanything wrong before.
And frequently, as you say, peoplewho didn't really understand the
system that they had been put into.
And then people who.
If they, for example, had dementiaand had not, renewed their driving

(01:54):
insurance, somehow were put into thisenormous justice machine, which that
led to them being criminally convicted.
And it, it, was really, it was outrageousto hear, and I think it got compared at
the time to the post office story justbecause it, of the evident unfairness, the
evident injustice baked into this system.
I hope that you're gonna say that inthe years since you won the award.

(02:17):
This has all changed.

Tristen (02:19):
I, wish I could say it's all changed.
There are positives.
I think winning the award.
Was, obviously a great accolade, but whatit did was it put the stories and the
issue onto, a level that I think madethe government sit up and take notice.
It's been almost a year and theproblems that were identified.

(02:41):
Back then still exist.
Okay.
And the system continues to operate,largely unre reformed, which to me
is a, is an ongoing scandal, andsomething of a national disgrace.
But the, labor government has, undertakena consultation between March and May to

(03:02):
ask what possible changes could be made.
And so there is a sort of a lightat the end of the tunnel that they
are thinking about changing things,making prosecutors in the system read
the mitigation letters rather simple.
Okay.
Change to things.
Yeah.
the kind of obvious thing that you wouldthink already happens, but doesn't.
The problem I have is that, it'snow mid-May, and the government

(03:26):
hasn't committed to any kind ofa timetable for when they might.
Do this.
And so this system rolls on week by week.
This is a system that wasinvented in 2015, so this has
been going on for many, years.
The fact that I've startedreporting on it doesn't mean that
it's only just started happening.

Andy (03:45):
As we are speaking this morning, the latest story about the single justice
procedure written by you was publishedon the standard website three hours ago
about a mother who was convicted of notpaying a an eight pound 75 car bill while
she was grieving, the death of her baby.
And that's, it's clearlythese things are ongoing.

Tristen (04:06):
It, makes you really furious to be honest with you, to, come across a case
like that in, in the summer last year.
I looked into, a case, jointlywith ITV News who went down to, to
speak to her of a mother who had.
Lost her baby in tra tragic circumstances.

(04:26):
and at that time, grievingobviously devastated.
She hadn't paid her car insurance.
She was then prosecuted and convictedin the single justice procedure.
And once we'd highlighted thatcase, they went back, revisited it.
It was obviously wrong, not somethingthat our court should be doing,
and the conviction was overturned.
And then we move forward a yearand we have the latest case.

(04:50):
Which was literally last weekof a mother who lost her baby
in terrible circumstances and,didn't pay for the car tax.
It's almost exactly the same thing,and we are nearly a year later and
we're, still dealing with the problem.
It just makes you really madthat, nobody in power has said.

(05:12):
Okay, there might be bigger changes weneed to make to this system, but there
are these obvious small changes thatcan be made, and yet nobody's doing it.
So as much as I'm happy that thereare politicians and officials who
are looking at this every week.
These cases come up.
Winning the Paul Ford Award was a, justa fantastic launchpad for this story

(05:37):
and I really appreciated that, thisrecognition of an issue that really had
trucked on in the background for me for.
Many months, if not years, withoutreceiving much attention at all.
And I think Privatized got anincredible record of highlighting
and recognizing stories and issuesthat don't grab the national media

(06:01):
agenda in any way that really struggleto make that kind of breakthrough.
And, I appreciate that, and that'sobviously led to an awful lot
of, other things to do with thesingle justice procedure being
put onto the national agenda.
As a consequence, a few monthsafter winning the award, I
reported on a, very, very niche.

(06:22):
Anomaly within the system to do withtrain fair evasions, that, people have
been convicted and, sentenced in thesingle justice procedure of fair evasion,
when that wasn't allowed to be done.
In the single justice procedure becauseof its fast track court process nature.

(06:42):
It was a very technical niche storythat, people on train blogs and
enthusiasts had been talking out for along time, and incredibly unexpectedly.
That issue was then seizedupon by the government and
the courts and something like.
70 odd thousand convictionswere then overturned.

(07:05):
I really do believe that's somethingthat wouldn't have happened if this issue
weren't on the national agenda becauseit's, that's the kind of thing that could
very, easily be swept under the carpet.
but it's because.
Privat Eye had seized on this andsaid, this is a really big issue.
I do, genuinely believe that, helpedto convince people in power to say,

(07:29):
look, we need to take this seriously.
We can't just sweep thisone under the carpet.

Andy (07:34):
So thanks to Tristan there.
that was last year's award.
Now we're gonna go over toIan as he makes his speech and
announcement of this year's winner.

Ian (07:43):
good evening and welcome to the Foot Awards 2025.
These are the premier journalistic awards.
There was another big event forjournalists, the Sahari Evans
Investigative Journalist Summit.
this took place.
Earlier this month, no onefrom private eye invited.

(08:08):
but it featured a lotof prominent UK figures.
One of these figures who appeared on theplatform was billed as a truth teller.
His name was Alistair Campbell,
WTF as the younger journalists say.
And WMD

(08:32):
as us older ones do.
So this is a traditional event.
it is a particularly sad day.
Today is the death of Brexit,
which obviously isgreat, sadness all round.
particularly for the Tory, paperswho've been claiming benefits for all.

(08:54):
All those years, Boris Johnson writing,obviously fellow journalist, he's
cheap, but inevitable.
he wrote about Kier.
He said Kier was the orange bullchewing manacled, gimp of Brussels.

(09:17):
And we always tell young journalistswrite about what you know.
I, some of you will remember that alot of toy mps were actually found with
orange balls in manacles at variousstages of the last government anyway.
It's slightly odd for themale to actually run that.
it's a family newspaper.

(09:38):
The mail, it's the Roth Me familynewspaper, but I think maybe
they think the word non domis some sort of s and m thing.
Anyway, the foot awards are 20 yearsold, like a, fine old port or a really

(09:58):
rotten new free port like tea side.
In the olden days, I justwanted to give a bit of history.
this event was co-funded by The Guardian,but the Guardian became very short
of money, and as they still are, andthe guardian decided they could no

(10:21):
longer pay for the award or for thisparty, which let's be honest, they're
down to their last billion pounds.
In the holding fund.
it's no wonder they hadto sell off the observer.
They've sold it to a company calledTortoise, which you all know, named after

(10:42):
ESOP's fable of the tortoise and theha brain scheme to run a Sunday paper.
I always say at this event, Ifind it very cheering and I always
say journalism is alive and well.
And I feel a bit like Joe Biden's PR team.
No, he's fine.
He's fine.

(11:04):
No, he's very well, he's fine.
Really kicking strong.
Tough,
but.
I do mean it.
I, do genuinely believe it andevery year I get inspired by,
the entries, for these awards.

(11:25):
And this award is named after Paul Foot.
Paul was an absolutely extraordinaryman, and brilliant journalist.
It is extraordinary to think aboutPaul and his legacy going on.
there are two documentariesabout Lockerby now.
And his first special,the flight from Justice.
Paul followed that story and weare still following it today.

(11:45):
He was one of the first to write aboutthe infected blood scandal decades ago,
and you watch a protest going on now.
Someone wrote to me about handratty, god, 1960s miscarriage.
Someone still wants to rectify that.
He wrote about the Birmingham six,the Guildford four death on the
Rock, the Piper Alpha disaster,the Scott Report, and so many more.

(12:06):
Paul was always.
A, brilliant journalist, but B, hedid it with a lightness of touch.
I, was looking it up and I foundhe had actually done the joke about
privatization in the health servicethe first time, and the headline
was, the NHS safe is in my hands.

(12:26):
that was 25 years ago.
this event still convinces me thatthere are real people out there writing
really good stories that matter.
And we have a long list of 10 theTimes The Guardian livable, post
Liberty, open democracy, Londoncentric, proving we're not Reuters

(12:47):
Institute, nothing from the mail Thisyear, I was hoping for a joint entry.
the mail on Sunday, theirLet Be is Innocent campaign.
and the male podcast killernurse coming to get you.
Anyway, maybe next yearthe pull Foot Awards 2025.

(13:15):
Patrick Butler and Josh Halliday.

Andy (13:23):
Patrick, Josh, congratulations on

Patrick (13:26):
winning.
You must be very glad I'mcompletely over the moon.
Of all the awards of allthe journalistic awards.
This is the one, this is the onethat when we've discussed it, we've
thought this is the one we reallywant to win, and my God, we've won it.
It's amazing.

Andy (13:41):
We've just spoken to.
Kirk last year's winner who talkedabout the changes in the single justice
procedure, his story, and the how thestories evolved from last year to this.
In an ideal world, when you're back, neckfor next year's award, what would you
like to have seen happen with this story?

Josh (13:59):
if we are back here in a year's time, we'd like to see an end to the sort
of persecution of unpaid carers, an endto the criminal prosecutions, an end to.
The, punishing of peoplevia this cliff edge fiasco.
And, this is really, an importantpoint about does the state side with

(14:24):
unpaid carers who are propping upthe social care system and, give
them the benefit of the doubt whenthey are just trying to survive.
That's all they're doing.
They're not trying to calm the system.
They're not, defrauding thepublic purse by earning an
average of 50 p or one pound.
On over the threshold for a year or two.

(14:46):
They're just trying to survive in anincredibly difficult time of their life.
And so what we really want isa more compassionate system.

Andy (14:56):
You mentioned the, in your speech, Patrick, the, editorial support that
you'd had, and I think, it's alwaysworth talking about that a little bit.
I wonder if you'd mind sayinga bit more about that now.

Patrick (15:08):
I think when I first came to the news session with the story,
they thought this was a great story.
They recognized.
To the injustice.
And I think lots of people think thatcarers don't matter who are carers,
they're just basically hundreds ofthousands, if not millions of mainly
middle aged women who look after theirloved ones, whose lives are basically an
act of love to their family and their sonsand their daughters and their partners.

(15:33):
In the back of my mind, I wasthinking like a journalist is
always thinking, is this a story?
And the more and more we did it, themore I thought this is an amazing story.
And to, and thanks to my colleagues.
Who saw this and put a lot of resource andtime and energy and enthusiasm behind it.
They backed us at every stage.
They cleared the front page everynow and then for us to do a story.

(15:55):
They gave us space inside.
We went on the podcast, theybacked it from start to finish.
And I have to say, that was agreat judgment on their part.

Andy (16:05):
I don't even need to ask this.
Is there more to come on this story?
Are you working on whatever's next interms of the carer's allowance scandal?

Josh (16:13):
Yeah, we're absolutely focused on this, dead set.
what has been shown by previouspole foot winners is that you've
just got to hold your nerve.
And all of those shortlisted tonighthave held their nerve against
official denial, official obfuscation.
And that doesn't put us off.
We'll keep going This.

(16:33):
Award, I hope, will really turbocharge,our investigation, put it in the public
spotlight even more than it is and, powerus onto proper change in government.

Patrick (16:45):
The main reason why this story happened, and it worked and
it made so many people angry at theunfairness, was that lots of people,
unpaid carers, not least spoke tous, and they were incredibly brave.
Most of them were very ashamed.
End of what they've done, theythought it was their fault.

(17:06):
they thought no one was listeningto them and would listen to them,
and they were just gonna take theirpunishment beating and their bravery
in talking to us was incredible.
And I think both of us wouldsay that if anything, this award
is dedicated to unpaid carers.

Andy (17:22):
So that's it from this year's Paul Foot Award.
We will be back again next year withanother Paul Foot Award, but we'll
also be back again tomorrow withanother regular episode of Patient.
Before tune in.
It's gonna be great fun.
We'll see you then.
Thanks to you for listeningand as always, to Matt Hill of
breathing, Cordio for producing.
Bye for now.