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: 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.

Recently by Richard Ingrams

Richard Ingrams’s Week: Ian Fleming's creations are preferable to reality

Saturday, 12 December 2009

I don't know who persuaded the head of MI6 to go public, but whoever it was made a terrible mistake.

Richard Ingrams’s Week: The insistent doubts about Chilcot's tame professor

Saturday, 5 December 2009

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. One by one the civil servants and the army generals queue up to say their piece and that's about all there is to it.

Richard Ingrams’s Week: Will Zionists' links to Iraq invasion be brushed aside?

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Writing in The Independent on Sunday, 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".

Richard Ingrams’s Week: Why are so many deniers of climate change on the right?

Saturday, 21 November 2009

"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.

Richard Ingrams's Week: Lots of money for BBC staff, less for its contributors

Saturday, 14 November 2009

MPs should be grateful to the BBC for revealing this week full details of the pay and expenses of all their senior executives.

Richard Ingrams's Week: Politicians need all the scientific help they can get

Saturday, 7 November 2009

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.

Richard Ingrams’s Week: We could learn a thing or two from the French

Saturday, 31 October 2009

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.