THIS MAY BE DYNAMITE! shouted the headline in Britain's trade weekly World's Press News. Beneath it was a scandal-scented story: the press was paying members of the House of Commons for parliamentary and party "leaks." The accusation came from fat, florid Garry Allighan, a Labor M.P. and ex-Fleet Streeter. Some M.P.s, Allighan charged, got cash, some got publicity, some were merely "lubricated into loquacity" around the House bar.
As news editor of the London Mirror, Allighan said he had personally okayed payments to several M.P.s, including one now risen to the Cabinet. As Allighan told it, Lord Beaverbrook's Evening Standard had been...