Richard Ingrams

Profile: Full name: Richard Reid Ingrams Area of interest: Politics, Society (esp. corruption in public life), Media Journals/Organisation: The Independent Email: r.ingrams@independent.co.uk Personal website: Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/richard-ingrams Blog: Representation: Networks:

Biography: About: Education: Shrewsbury School; University College, Oxford: Classics Career: Served his National Service as a private in the Royal Army Service Corps; Private Eye: Co-founder (1962), editor 1963/1986; television critic for The Spectator; founder and editor of The Oldie, 1992; long-standing columnist for The Observer before moving to The Independent in 2005 New Statesman Profile: Richard Ingrams by Michael Leapman, 11th March 2002 (audio available) Current position/role: The Independent: Columnist also writes/has written for: The Oldie Other roles/Main role: The Oldie: Editor Other activities: Disclosures: Viewpoints/Insight: Interview with: Richard Ingrams by David Rowan, Evening Standard, 28th September 2005 Interview: Press Conference With...(or without) Richard Ingrams, by Rob McGibbon, Press Gazette, 16th December 2005 Broadcast media: Video: Regular on BBC Radio 4's radio panel quiz, The News Quiz IMDb Controversy/Criticism: see... Controversy (Wikipedia) People and organisations frequently parodied by Private Eye (Wikipedia) Awards/Honours: Scoops: Other: Brother of banker and opera impresario Leonard Ingrams (1941/2005) see also The Peerage.com: Richard Reid Ingrams

Books & Debate: God's apology: A Chronicle of Three Friends (1977) OCLC 3469912 Goldenballs (1979) OCLC 7146718 Muggeridge: The Biography (1995) OCLC 33407272 My friend Footy: A Memoir of Paul Foot (2005) OCLC 61177495 The Life and Adventures of William Cobbett (2005) OCLC 58554272 Latest work: Biography: Richard Ingrams: Lord of the Gnomes (1994) OCLC 31409786 (by Harry Thompson) Speaking/Appearances: Debate:

The Independent: Column name: Notebook Remit/Info: Politics, Society (esp. corruption in public life), Media Section: Role: Columnist Pen-name: Email: r.ingrams@independent.co.uk Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/richard-ingrams Commissioning editor: Day published: Saturday Regularity: Weekly Column format: Average length:

Articles: 2011 There are good men in politics but they don't get on - 27th August Sleaze that unites Watergate and phone hacking - Hush money has now become an issue in the phone-hacking scandal - 20th August The public plays a dangerous game with e-petitions - 13th August One issue rises above war and economic crisis - 6th August Keep an eye on politicians who go from left to right - 30th July Cameron needed little persuasion from his patron - 23rd July Prince Charles must put his faith in posterity - 16th July The country 'set' that makes a spiv of Cameron - 9th July Do all fictional detectives have to have parent problems? - 2nd July Should cricket be subject to such a rude interruption? - 25th June For the sake of the family' doesn't always wash - 11th June If there really is a war on drugs, then it's a phoney one - 4th June How reassuring to know that Sir Fred was still in control - 28th May Emptied streets give the lie to Anglo-Irish bonds - 21st May Lane Fox's digital crusade has another motive - If a boy scout comes knocking on your door in the near future it won't necessarily be a sign of bob-a-job week - 14th May Don't bow to those who get a kick out of ghoulish images - 7th May Do we really need a lesson from the PM in Christianity? - 30th April Campaigners need to be as obsessive as Ron Smith - 23rd April Watch what we do, don't listen to what we say - 16th April Get off your bike, Boris, and try the misery of trains - 26th March No love lost between lawyers and journalists - This week, The Times asked "100 top lawyers" if they were in favour of public figures having the right to resort to law in order to keep their business and private affairs secret. Yes, they said. Only 27 per cent were against - 19th March Didn't Cameron promise not to cut the NHS? - 12th March 2011 When those in power abandon all scruples - 5th March Fearless crusader and a bleak forecast for Labour - 26th February Now I know why I'm against the alternative vote - 19th February We call them news stories – others call them 'the product' - 12th February Labour's strategy has to be more robust - It isn't exactly clear what the Labour Party stands for these days - 5th February I've heard the one about 'impartial arbiters' before - 29th January esigning can be the prelude to glittering success - 22nd January MPs need to choose advisers wisely - In the 1970s we had the Poulson affair. Now, with a change of only one letter, we have the Coulson affair - 8th January Deedes and a more genteel Fleet Street - It's hard to imagine an editor of the old school endorsing these tactics - 1st January

Articles: 2010 It's hardly a war on drugs – more like a skirmish - 18th December Why should we all be forced to do business online? - 11th December Fifa is football's answer to Eurovision - The events in Zurich remind me of the Eurovision Song Contest - 4th December 2010 Hilton's blue sky thinking leaves me feeling low - 27th November Business and politics can be a dangerous mix - 20th November If we can't afford some universities, shut them down - 13th November Some things are too sensitive to be discussed openly - 6th November What's a bored housewife to do but go shopping? - 30th October Why do wealthy politicians need to fiddle expenses? - 23rd October Blair could save us a lot of money by moving to the US - 16th October Hell is other people when you're stuck on a cruise ship - 9th October The game of follow my leader is played for the cameras - 2nd October Here's a cause that George Galloway can get behind - 25th September Atheism could do without Dawkins - Rather than attacking Dawkins, Pope's followers ought to encourage him - 18th September Incompetence of hacks is matched by that of the police - 11th September The mysterious case of the missing neocons - 4th September Not everyone is quick to condemn the Church - 28th August When the top brass want to ban the bomb - 7th August There are some official decisions that defy belief - 31st July Our leaders know so little about our country's history - 24th July Great wealth can be a very useful thing in politics - 17th July What is going on in the Church of England? - 10th July An untimely clash of memos and memoirs for Blair - 3rd July It's galling when the rich tell us to tighten our belts - 19th June It's galling when the rich tell us to tighten our belts - 12th June Our new Prime Minister has some interesting friends - 5th June Labour can't turn its back on an architect of war - The Tories refused to put up a Cabinet minister to go on the BBC's Question Time on Thursday because Alastair Campbell had already been booked - 29th May Today's oracle is tomorrow's forgotten writer - 22nd May Boozy lunches, smoke-filled rooms, gossip. All gone - 15th May Masterclass in art forgery and fooling the rich - 8th May How meanings change in the hands of the police - 1st May Why show the debate where lots of us can't see it? - I searched the Evening Standard TV guide on Thursday to try to find details of the great election debate but there was nothing to say when it was on or on which channel you could watch it - 24th April I decide who to vote for – and then something puts me off - As a floating voter, I have traditionally based my decision on whom to vote for on purely negative and, it has to be said, extremely trivial issues - 10th April A debate that highlights the BBC's dereliction of duty - There was something a bit reminiscent of the Three Tenors about Monday's Channel 4 debate starring Messrs Darling, Osborne and Cable - 3rd April Some friends will stick to you through thick and thin - The expulsion of a Mossad man from London following the affair over the forged passports used by a gang of Israeli assassins in Dubai is welcome, if only to remind us that regardless of this single expulsion Mossad operates openly out of London with the full approval of the British Government - 27th March Who knows how to educate our children? - Does Boris's Latin help him deal with the congestion charge? - 20th March Am I the only person who doesn't hate junk mail? - Like drink-driving and paedophilia, junk mail is one of those things that everyone has agreed is 100 per cent bad. But for those who like writing letters to the newspapers it is a godsend - 13th March The nation's booksellers lose a valued customer - One of the many good things about Michael Foot, who died this week aged 96, was his refusal to accept honours - 6th March Even a hard-bitten hack can get upset - We will never know the means by which Max Hastings became Sir Max - 27th February Desperate Dave tries to avoid dinosaurs - There's a lack of logic in some of the arguments being advanced by Cameron - 20th February All this advance publicity has killed the suspense - I shall not be tuning into Gordon Brown's TV interview tomorrow. And it has nothing to do with the lateness of the hour or my strong aversion to the interviewer, former Mirror editor Piers Morgan - 13th February Let him who is without sin put in an expenses claim - It was Dr Johnson, who, when one of his young aristocratic friends was thinking of going into politics, urged him to go ahead, observing that he would "make a very pretty rascal" - 6th February Get the inquisitor to answer a few questions - A strange situation developed at an early stage of Tony Blair's inquisition at the Chilcot inquiry yesterday. He was being questioned at some length by Sir Roderic Lyne about a speech he made in Chicago in 1999 making the case for military intervention in foreign states where nasty things were going on - 30th January Was Cook sacked on the orders of George Bush? - When he appeared before the Chilcot inquiry on Wednesday, Jack Straw, they said, became the first serving cabinet minister to express "deep regret" about the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the thousands of deaths that resulted - 23rd January No wonder the public has so little faith in politicians - The British are a lot of softies nowadays, unable to cope with even a few inches of snow. Scarcely had that particular cry died down than the armed forces minister, Bill Rammell, was suggesting that the country might get "so risk-averse, cynical and introverted" that we would never again be prepared to countenance military action against a foreign power - 16th January Confusing musings from Carey the columnist - Are we still a Christian country? The question was raised by an article in The Times this week by the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey who along with the likes of David Blunkett is worried by the influx of Muslims but doesn't feel quite able to say so in so many words - 9th January Blair must be quizzed over Bush's biblical crusade - I have expressed doubts on more than one occasion about the Chilcot inquiry and in particular whether the panel will consider the crucial role of the American neocons and political links with Israel - 2nd January

Articles: 2009 Why should we do what the Government wants? - Like me, you may have noticed that your bank no longer sends you a new cheque book when your old one is about to run out - 26th December Who says we just want entertainment, Sir John? - As a lifelong lover of personal abuse and vituperation, I read with great delight this week's article in The Times headed "Intoxicated by power, Blair tricked us into war" by Sir Ken Macdonald QC, the former Director of Public Prosecutions - 19th December Ian Fleming's creations are preferable to reality - I don't know who persuaded the head of MI6 to go public, but whoever it was made a terrible mistake - 12th December The insistent doubts about Chilcot's tame professor - It's supposed to be an inquiry but there's not much sign of any inquiring going on. I have been studiously following reports of the current investigation into the Iraq war and have even seen bits of it on television and I have yet to read or see a single case of any of the five-strong panel asking a question of those giving evidence - 5th December Will Zionists' links to Iraq invasion be brushed aside? - our former ambassador to Libya, Oliver Miles, points out that two members of the Iraq inquiry are Jewish and that one of them, Sir Martin Gilbert, "has a record of active support for Zionism" - 28th November Why are so many deniers of climate change on the right? - "Never write about any matter that you do not well understand" – advice to us journalists once given by one of the very greatest, William Cobbett. In my many years as a newspaper columnist I have tried (perhaps not always successfully) to bear it in mind - 21st November Lots of money for BBC staff, less for its contributors - MPs should be grateful to the BBC for revealing this week full details of the pay and expenses of all their senior executives - 14th November Politicians need all the scientific help they can get - The scientific community is still spluttering about the sacking of the Government's drugs adviser Professor David Nutt, and there is plenty of high-falutin' talk about the integrity of scientists and the value of the independent advice they offer to politicians - 7th November We could learn a thing or two from the French - A schoolboy who recently joined an anti-Scientology demonstration in London had his name taken by the police when he refused to lower a placard which called Scientology a cult. Luckily the case against him was dropped after the human rights organisation Liberty intervened on his behalf - 31st October We forget our soldiers' legal fears over Iraq - Having, as I do, what some may consider a perverse inclination to sympathise with anyone subjected to unanimous abuse, I have been struggling to think of something nice to say about Mr Nick Griffin - 24th October Not all of us are happy with rising house prices - The good news is that house prices are going up again. For the past two years or so, there has been a steady decline. So a house that might have cost £500,000 two years ago might today be worth only £450,000 - 3rd October If Scotland goes, she will not be missed - Lady Scotland's political record is scarcely impressive - 26th September Crazy restrictions must be resisted - It's up to us to ignore the regulations - and be rude to those who enforce them - 19th September All these apologies are ridiculous - Brown has taken to apologising for things he had nothing to do with - 12th September Millions of us live happily internet-free - It's estimated that about 17 million people are "excluded" from the internet - 5th September It takes all kinds to get involved in the eco debate - As the great debate about global warming grinds on, it is as well to bear in mind that there is more than a fair share of nutters on both sides of the divide - 29th August Obsessive, maybe - but won't be lied to - Despite the dropping of the Megrahi appeal - Jim Swire will carry on - 22nd August Awkward questions over Lockerbie won't go away - There will be strenuous denials that any kind of deal has been done with the so-called Lockerbie bomber Abdul al-Megrahi whereby he agrees to drop his appeal against conviction in return for being allowed to return to Libya - 15th August Corridors of power can trap the unwary outsider - I shouldn't think the name C P Snow means much to today's generation, but 40-odd years ago he was well known as a novelist – he coined the expression "the corridors of power" – and also a scientist - 8th August Tony Blair's reputation is safe from destruction - Not used to speaking in public, civil servants give themselves away as soon as they open their mouths. Sir John Chilcot, the dark-suited respectable figure selected to head Gordon Brown's inquiry into the Iraq war, was determined to talk tough when he launched his investigation this week - 1st August Sir Anthony Blunt and my part in his downfall - I refer back to the story not solely to boast about a brilliant journalistic coup but because it illustrates the folly of going to law to protect your reputation - 25th July Schools learnt the wrong lesson from Soham tragedy - Following the infamous Soham murder case of 2002, the customary inquiry was put into motion. As often happens, it ignored the most important question, which was how Huntley was taken on by the school in the first place, and instead proposed a whole range of petty new regulations to stop the same sort of thing from happening again - 18th July What a surprise: a prince defends a tyrannical king - The BBC is keen to keep close links with the Royal Family, which is presumably why the corporation invited Prince Charles to deliver the annual Dimbleby Lecture this week - 11th July Political apologies and group spirit – what a sorry affair - David Cameron is following his role model Tony Blair in making meaningless apologies - 4th July Celebrity coverage is rarely fair and balanced - "Nobody has soared so high and dived so low," says David Miliband on his website, according to a report in The Times. He was referring, apparently, not to Tony Blair or Gordon Brown but to the late Michael Jackson. "RIP Michael," Miliband added in a pious afterthought - 27th June No one talks nonsense quite like a historian - Journalists have always been a more reliable source of information, and thanks to their efforts we now know the answers about Blair, sexed-up dossiers, his lies about the weapons of mass destruction - 20th June Are we staring into an abyss, or just a computer screen? - It gets harder and harder – particularly for a senior citizen such as myself – to keep track of things: harder to remember when it was that certain events occurred - 13th June Don't underestimate the lack of interest in politics - There is an alarming gap between the things media folk say about the political situation and the experience of the audience they address, i.e. us - 6th June One rule for Hogg and another for Cameron - isn't the only real scandal in all this that of very rich men claiming for things they could perfectly well pay for out of their own pocket? - 30th May Once you're stuck with a nickname, the game's over - Friends of Speaker Martin are putting it about that he has been a victim of the class war. The nickname Gorbals Mick, conferred on him by the Daily Mail sketch writer Quentin Letts, is, they say, proof of a conspiracy on the part of public-school types in the media to sneer at an honest working-class Scot - 23rd May No room at the golf club for Fred 'The Shred' - Those multi-millionaire bankers like Sir Fred "The Shred" Goodwin must be relieved by the way the media searchlight has been switched from them to members of parliament for naming and shaming purposes - 16th May Pots and kettles spring to mind in expenses coverage - My friend Sefton Delmar, the famous Daily Express foreign correspondent, used to say that he could only think clearly in a five-star hotel. His proprietor, Lord Beaverbrook, was happy to oblige - 9th May Must do better - Sir Jim needs a lesson in language - when the Sir Jims of this world pontificate about the need for clear speaking they will themselves do so in impenetrable jargon of the worst kind - 2nd May Bring on the brain drain – the public is ready for it - Those of us who lived through the days of Old Labour as opposed to New will remember the traditional response to any suggestion by the Government of higher taxes for the rich – that any such move would lead to a brain drain and deprive the country of its greatest entrepreneurial talents - 25th April Stop and think before pressing the 'send' button - It is reported that the all-powerful Google is taking steps to help people who press the "send" button on an email and then instantly regret it. As things stand, there's nothing at all they can do - 18th April So Blair has turned into the trendy clergyman after all - Although he has been a Roman Catholic only for a year or so, Tony Blair already feels confident to speak on behalf of millions of what he calls "ordinary Catholics" throughout the world - 11th April Come the revolution, who will be there to protect us? - My friend who keeps in close touch with the Army's top brass tells me that there is talk in the officers' mess of possible "civil disorder" in Britain with consequent demands on the military to suppress it. With the British Army scattered fighting unwinnable wars, that might be a difficult assignment - 21st March We could all do with a little dignity in these hard times - Dignity is also something cherished by Sir Max Mosley, who appeared before a House of Commons Committee to outline the case for a new privacy law - 14th March Low pension, no savings – no wonder OAPs are drinking - 7th March Watch your step with the nuclear neighbours - the Americans are in a state of near-hysteria over the possibility of an Iranian nuclear bomb, though no mention is ever made of Israel's nuclear bomb, the existence of which might explain why the Iranians would be keen to have one of their own - 28th February Don’t bring God into it – we have enough worries - As if people didn’t have enough to worry about, what with the credit crunch and the collapse of the world banking system, it’s likely that not all that many of us are kept awake at night worrying about whether or not God exists - 21st February Brown may have bounced: Miliband dropped the catch - Just as he was last year, Brown is being written off as useless and incompetent - 14th February We will never know the truth about the A6 killer - the James Hanratty case - 7th February You're never too young to get a mobile, apparently - On Wednesday Samsung launched its new mobile phone, the Tobi, aimed specially at primary school pupils - 31st January Scapegoat for the banking crisis? Look no further - Sir Fred Goodwin. He has all the qualifications for a scape-goat, being not only extremely rich but arrogant, overbearing and fond of sacking his employees in large numbers – in other words, not just incompetent but unpleasant with it - 24th January This is the worst time for a third runway at Heathrow - the anti-runway protesters will have massive support and I don't expect to see the third runway in my lifetime - 17th January The ongoing tragedy of 'damage to innocents' - when the media reported the massacre of 40 Palestinians in a United Nations school in Gaza, the distinguished historian Andrew Roberts wrote in the Daily Express: "The Israeli Defence Force does all in its power to minimise damage to the innocent." - 10th January Not everyone was taken in by the master of the pause - What was Pinter trying to say? Did he even know himself? - 3rd January

Articles: 2008 Who are the heroes and villains of the Iraqi war? - Any dead British soldier is nowadays described in the press as a hero. All you have to do is be killed – not necessarily fighting the enemy - 20th December 2008 Who wouldn't want a millionaire for a friend? - It is good news that a man who made a multimillion-pound fortune from flogging mobile phones now finds himself in severe financial difficulties, has been forced to resign from various boards and may even have to face a criminal investigation into his share dealings - 13th December 2008 Politicians like to protest only when it suits them - I am aware that perhaps I ought to share the sense of outrage being widely expressed about the police's recent unwarranted intrusion into the House of Commons - 6th December 2008 Oh brother, can you spare me a few blushes? - As if all his troubles weren't enough, George Osborne now finds himself being pestered with press enquiries about his brother Adam - 29th November 2008 Why say what you mean when you can use jargon - I was never much good at philosophy, which I studied at Oxford, but it did give me the useful habit, in the age of jargon, of asking what people mean when they say certain things - 22nd November 2008 The public has little faith in this 'war on terror' - 15th November 2008 We're running out of firms we can trust with our data - 8th November 2008 Feel confident about your money? Don’t bank on it - A man jailed this week who made more than £2m from stolen pin numbers and credit cards - 1st November 2008 Defenders of the sanctity of human life grow weaker - It was Trotsky who referred scornfully to "the Papist-Quaker babble about the sanctity of human life". And it would be nice to think that such sentiments, only too typical of ruthless and bloodthirsty revolutionaries, have no place in the civilised world we live in today - 25th October 2008 Fred the Shred loses the job but not the gong - Sir Fred Goodwin, who has resigned as chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland, lists his recreation in Who's Who as restoring cars. He may have some more time for this now, while others, hopefully less cavalier, are embarking on the more difficult task of restoring banks - 18th October 2008 Being in the Met means never having to say you're sorry - there might have been more than a few gasps of disbelief that a senior officer could state that no one had done anything wrong when an innocent man had been shot on the floor of a Tube train with seven bullets in the head - 11th October 2008 My friend Claud, and advice the high street might heed - One of my earliest lessons in life was given me by the veteran left-wing journalist, Claud Cockburn (father of The Independent's intrepid Patrick) - 4th October 2008 Secretive world of family court and expert witnesses - 27th September 2008 Now we all have to pay for the banks' mistakes - 20th September 2008 Here's proof of how much the US differs from us - 13th September 2008 A so-called big beast who would be lost in a jungle - Charles Clarke is just another failed politician with a grudge Where health and safety tread, fear soon follows - 30th August 2008 An image of evil that the public will never forget - What a gift is Gary Glitter to the tabloids during the silly season... - 23rd August 2008 We can't go on blaming the system for drug problems - 16th August 2008 After the jury's verdict, the backlash begins - We're not looking for anyone else. That used to be the traditional police response when a convicted murderer was proved innocent and shown to have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice - 9th August 2008 Much is revealed when the jackets come off - 2nd August 2008 Jobs for Americans and Australians, but not Brits - 26th July 2008 When in trouble, pass the buck all the way to the US - 19th July 2008 The blue sky's the limit for these overpaid executives - 12th July 2008 Proof again that Boris is a poor judge of character - 5th July 2008 You try challenging an editor armed with a writ - 28th June 2008 Surely a case for staying at home with the children - 21st June 2008 We'd vote with our feet if the EU gave us half a chance - 16th June 2008 Another decisive move from the Foreign Secretary - 7th June 2008 The Archbishop puts our 'envoy' to shame in Gaza - 31st May 2008 “Bear with us” while we mess up the trains again - 24th May 2008 This is where a dodgy grasp of history gets you - 17th May 2008 “Institutional failure” is the curse of our times - 10th May 2008 The perils and pitfalls facing today's historians - 3rd May 2008 Blair's Babes were hardly battleaxes – more's the pity - 26th April 2008 God forbid that religion is part of religious studies - 19th April 2008 Our distorted priorities are ruining the economy - 12th April 2008 I'd prefer a bookie to a clergyman in Number Ten - 5th April 2008 We all need a lesson in morals, or so it seems - 29th March 2008 Is this the diagnosis for the condition called 'Blair'? - 22nd March 2008 No wonder there is little pride and patriotism left - 15th March 2008 Scorn is the price people pay for having an education - 8th March 2008 Nowhere to hide when the thetans are on your tail - 1st March 2008 He may be troubled, but Al Fayed is far from mad - 23rd February 2008 A feeble attempt to defend the indefensible - 16th February 2008 Here we go again: a vital principle under attack - 9th February 2008 Questions of cash, perks and the need for reform - 2nd February 2008 Ken's curious friendship with top brass at the Yard - 26th January 2008 Public schools are right to be wary of Brown's resentment - 19th January 2008 Better a man of 71 than a child for a nation's leader - 12th January 2008 Don't expect heads to roll over this railway chaos - 5th January 2008

News & updates:

References:

Links: Guardian.co: articles 2000/2007 (archive) The Oldie Wikipedia bio