Gerry Gable
Gerry Gable | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1937 |
Gerry Gable (born 1937) is a British Jewish political activist. He was the first editor of the anti-fascist Searchlight magazine in 1962, which he continued editing, with a break of a few years, until 1998.
Background
As a youth, Mr Gable was a member of the Young Communist League and the Communist Party of Great Britain, and worked as a runner on the Communist Party's Daily Worker newspaper, leaving after a year to become a Communist Party trade union organizer.
He stood unsuccessfully for the Communist Party on May 10, 1962 at Northfield Ward, Stamford Hill, North London.[1]
In 1962, after 10 years' membership, he left the Communist Party to "concentrate on anti-fascist work and because the party had begun to adopt an anti-Israel line". (The Review, February 1999) Mr Gable's son has served in the Israeli army (Jewish Chronicle, October 23, 1987).
In November 1963, Mr Gable was arrested and held at Hornsey police station following an attempt to enter the Mayfair flat of David Irving (Evening Standard, November 28, 1963). On January 14, 1964, he admitted entry into the flat by artifice with intent to steal private papers. He was subsequently convicted and fined £28. (Daily Telegraph, January 15, 1964). At his trial, counsel for the defence told the court, "they hoped to find material they could take to Special Branch". (Daily Telegraph, January 17, 1964).
BBC libel litigation
In 1984 Gerry Gable was commissioned by the BBC to produce research for a BBC television program Panorama episode "Maggie's Militant Tendency". The episode was to focus on a claim of right-wing extremism in the Conservative Party. Mr Gable claimed that his research drew upon the information previously published in Searchlight Magazine (Searchlight No 130 April 1986, p2). Mr Gable "was the man mainly responsible for the programme" (Daily Telegraph, 13 March 1985) acccording to the Labour Party MP Mr Robin Corbett.
The claims by Mr Gable that two Conservative party figures, Neil Hamilton and Gerald Howarth, were secret extremist Nazi supporters was met with libel action against the BBC. In 1986 the BBC offered the two litigants a settlement out-of-court. The offer was accepted and the settlement amounted to £1 million in cash, paid by the tax payer from the BBC license fee.[2]
Searchlight Magazine
Gable stepped down as editor of Searchlight magazine in 1998 to make way for younger members of the team and to give him more time to concentrate on intelligence gathering.[citation needed]