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' Week: You try challenging an editor armed with a writ

"It is utterly impossible," said William Hazlitt, "to persuade an editor that he is a nobody." That self-importance helps to explain why journalists are much more likely to resort to law than politicians.

Recently by Richard Ingrams

Richard Ingrams' Week: Surely a case for staying at home with the children

Saturday, 21 June 2008

Delving into the new archive of The Times, Matthew Parris has unearthed what he thinks is that paper's first-ever profile of the former Tory leader Margaret Thatcher, headed "Minister with enough time for family commitments". Published in 1961, two years after Thatcher made her maiden speech in Parliament, The Times's profile was complimentary and supportive: "Often it is said that for women, family life and a political career are incompatible. Mrs Thatcher's progress demonstrates that this is not so."

Richard Ingrams: We'd vote with our feet if the EU gave us half a chance

Monday, 16 June 2008

The reason that, unlike the Irish, we didn't have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, was that the Government knew perfectly well that it would return an overwhelming no vote just as the Irish have done. And the reason for that is that people have become more and more aware that many of the unpleasant changes that are happening in this country have their origins in Brussels and, further, that there is not much any of us can do about it.