Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams has written a column for The Independent since 2005. A key figures in the satire boom of the 1960s, he helped found Private Eye and edited it for 23 years. In 1992 he founded The Oldie, which he has edited since. Vintage humorist, scourge of the pompous and the power-hungry, Ingrams brings a unique perspective to bear on the political foibles of the age and on a culture in thrall to celebrity.
Richard Ingrams’s Week: Political apologies and group spirit – what a sorry affair
David Cameron is following his role model Tony Blair in making meaningless apologies. Blair apologised to the Irish nation for the potato famine of the 1840s while Cameron has now apologised for the Thatcher government's controversial Section 28, which banned local authorities and schools from promoting homosexuality. "I hope you can forgive us," he said with apparent sincerity.
Recently by Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams’s Week: Celebrity coverage is rarely fair and balanced
Saturday, 27 June 2009
"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.
Richard Ingrams’s Week: No one talks nonsense quite like a historian
Saturday, 20 June 2009
Sir Martin Gilbert, the allegedly distinguished historian who is one of those appointed to investigate the Iraq war, has let it be known that one day in the future Bush and Blair might be seen in the same light as Roosevelt and Churchill. A good example of the rule that when it comes to talking nonsense it's hard to beat a historian.
Richard Ingrams’ Week: Are we staring into an abyss, or just a computer screen?
Saturday, 13 June 2009
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.
Richard Ingrams’ Week: Don't underestimate the lack of interest in politics
Saturday, 6 June 2009
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. This is not just a question of that elusive fury over the MPs' expenses about which I wrote last week and which we are still told has every man, woman and child in its grip.
Richard Ingrams's Week: One rule for Hogg and another for Cameron
Saturday, 30 May 2009
I have never been all that keen on wisteria, that woody rambling climber that left to its own devices will cover the front of many country cottages producing masses of pale mauve blossoms at this time of the year.
Richard Ingrams’s Week: Once you're stuck with a nickname, the game's over
Saturday, 23 May 2009
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.
Richard Ingrams’s Week: No room at the golf club for Fred 'The Shred'
Saturday, 16 May 2009
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.
Richard Ingrams’s Week: Pots and kettles spring to mind in expenses coverage
Saturday, 9 May 2009
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.
Richard Ingrams’s Week: Must do better - Sir Jim needs a lesson in language
Saturday, 2 May 2009
The education establishment has a vested interest in promoting the use of computers. Those in charge look forward to a golden age when the internet becomes the sole source of all information, thus enabling them to dispense altogether with books, which are expensive, untidy and take up a lot of room.
Richard Ingrams’s Week: Bring on the brain drain – the public is ready for it
Saturday, 25 April 2009
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.
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Columnist Comments
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It was only a matter of time before Andy Coulson became a news story
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It was supposed to be "never glad confident morning again" for capitalism
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