Tag Archives: ian hislop

Mary Reid

Watch Ian Hislop on the Post Office scandal

By Mary Reid | Thu 11th January 2024 - 12:32 pm

Private Eye and Computer Weekly were doggedly exposing the Post Office scandal for many years. They reported the scale of the problem with Horizon at a time when individual postmasters were still being lied to and told that they were the only person with the problem.

On Peston last night Ian Hislop clashed with Jake Berry MP over the Government’s inertia in dealing with it.

Earlier in the programme he had expressed his profound anger at the long history of the scandal.

Watch this from about 43 minutes in. (Sorry, ITVX won’t allow me to embed this)

Note that Ed Davey is name-checked in the intro, but with the comment that he was just one of 17 PO ministers over the period. Ian Hislop also rubbishes the way in which Ed has been singled out, and proceeds to hit at the real culprits.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment
The Voice

“Whatever jokes he made about himself, he was nobody’s fool”

By The Voice | Mon 28th December 2015 - 11:00 am

 

Ian Hislop remembered Charles Kennedy in The Observer yesterday.  He writes:

I think Charles would have laughed. David Cameron was one of the last to arrive at his memorial service and walked down the aisle looking for a seat. The only one available was in a pew next to Nick Clegg. “Awkward,” said someone sitting next to me as the prime minister greeted his former coalition partner warmly and sat down.

Politics is a funny business in both senses of the word – bizarre and comic – and Charles Kennedy always had a keen sense of this. It was why the public warmed to him so strongly because he realised that the world that engaged him so passionately could strike ordinary people as strange or ridiculous. Acknowledging this was a way to bridge the gap and he was always very good on Have I Got News for You, irreverently answering questions using exaggerated political cliches or avoiding them entirely using absurd evasive euphemisms.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Your essential weekend reader — 12 must-read articles you may have missed

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th December 2012 - 5:40 pm

It’s Saturday evening, so here are twelve thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices culled from the 50+ I’ve linked to from my Delcicious account this last week…

Groundhog year – Peter Kellner examines the polls to find how 12 months’ political turmoil has shifted popular opinion. The answer — not at all: ‘public reaction this year to Britain’s continuing economic troubles has been remarkably static. 2012 has been groundhog year.’

What next? Osborne needs a change of direction – Adam Posen, a former …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 10 Comments
Bill Bradshaw

Musings from the Front Bench…

By Bill Bradshaw | Thu 22nd July 2010 - 1:20 pm

I have supported the Liberal Party and its successors since the General Election of 1950, although I did not follow a political career. Instead, I was involved in the railway and bus industries before moving into academia at the Universities of Salford and Oxford.

My entry to the House of Lords was a complete surprise. It took place over a two year period, and the process began with an interview with John Harris and Bill Rodgers, the then Chief Whip and Leader in the House respectively. Having been sworn to secrecy, I was asked firstly whether, if appointed, I would promise …

Continue reading »
Posted in Parliament | Also tagged , , , and | Leave a comment
Alex Foster

More Hansard quotes about #Trafigura

By Alex Foster | Thu 15th October 2009 - 4:55 pm

Yesterday we brought you links to discussion in Parliament about disreputable oil company Trafigura’s legal shenanigans to prevent discussion of their activities on the Côte d’Ivoire.

Today here’s a little more, courtesy of Private Eye’s blog. Ian Hislop, the editor of the magazine, appeared with Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger at a select committee hearing discussing the damage injunctions can do to real, investigative journalism. An unedited verbatim transcript can be found here, with the juicy bits starting around Q850, about halfway down the very long page.

In it, Hislop talks candidly about a number of incidences where …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | Leave a comment
Advert



Recent Comments

  • Craig Levene
    Labour have already stated a wish to renegotiate a better deal with the EU, what that will look like is anyone's guess. They've repeatedly ruled out SM member...
  • Alex Macfie
    @Craig Levene: Of course she was, that's what you'd expect her to be doing. Alexis Jay may well have influenced government policy and actions (although this may...
  • Craig Levene
    Alex. In Professor Jay's interview with the Guardian in November 2024 , she clearly states she was pressing Government ministers to commit to the reports findin...
  • Mick Taylor
    Daniel Stylianou: There would be no by-elections to a reformed HoL as under PR you can always appoint the next one on the party list or recount STV. That's how ...
  • Mick Taylor
    About time too...