Private Eye
Encyclopedia
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical
and current affairs
magazine
, edited by Ian Hislop
.
Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency, corruption, pomposity or self-importance and it has become a self-styled "thorn in the side" of the British establishment
. It has always received criticism from some quarters for its irreverent style and for its willingness to print stories that are controversial and allegedly defamatory. This was reflected in the past by the large number of libel lawsuits against it, a phenomenon for which it became notorious.
As Britain's best-selling current affairs magazine, such is its long-term popularity and impact that many recurring in-jokes from Private Eye
have entered popular culture.
, Willie Rushton
, Christopher Booker
and Paul Foot
at Shrewsbury School
in the mid-1950s. After their National Service
, Ingrams and Foot went as undergraduates to Oxford University
, where they met their future collaborators Peter Usborne, Andrew Osmond, John Wells
and Danae Brook, among others.
The magazine proper began when Peter Usborne learned of a new printing process, photo-litho offset
, which meant that anybody with a typewriter
and Letraset
could produce a magazine. The publication was initially funded by Osmond and was launched in 1961. It was named when Andrew Osmond looked for ideas in the famous recruiting poster of Lord Kitchener
(an image of Kitchener pointing with the caption "Wants You") and, in particular, the pointing finger. After the name Finger was rejected, Osmond suggested Private Eye
, in the sense of someone who "fingers" a suspect. The magazine was initially edited by Christopher Booker and designed by Willie Rushton, who also drew cartoon
s for it. Its later editor Richard Ingrams, who was then pursuing a career as an actor, shared the editorship with Booker, from around issue 10, and took over fully at issue 40. At first Private Eye was merely a vehicle for silly jokes: an extension of the original school magazine, and an alternative to Punch. However, according to Booker, it simply got "caught up in the rage for satire".
After the magazine's initial success, more funding was provided by Nicholas Luard
and Peter Cook
, who ran The Establishment
– a satirical nightclub - and Private Eye became a fully professional publication.
Others essential to the development of the magazine were Auberon Waugh
, Claud Cockburn
(who had run a pre-war scandal sheet, The Week
), Barry Fantoni
, Gerald Scarfe
, Tony Rushton, Patrick Marnham
and Candida Betjeman. Christopher Logue
was another long-time contributor, providing a column of "True Stories" featuring cuttings from the national press. The gossip columnist
Nigel Dempster
wrote extensively for the magazine before he fell out with the editor and other writers, and Paul Foot
wrote on politics, local government and corruption.
Ingrams continued as editor until 1986, when he was succeeded by Ian Hislop
. Ingrams is still chairman of the holding company.
Private Eye is often seen as specialising in scurrilous gossip and scandal about the misdeeds of the powerful and famous, and has received numerous libel writ
s. These include three issued by Sir James Goldsmith
and several by Robert Maxwell
, one of which resulted in costs and reported damages of £225,000 and attacks on the magazine through the publication of a book, Malice in Wonderland, and a magazine, Not Private Eye
, published by Maxwell. Its defenders point out that it often carries news that the mainstream press will not use for fear of legal reprisals or because it is of minority interest.
A financial column at the back of the magazine ("In the City", written by Michael Gillard) has contributed to a wide city and business readership as a large number of financial scandals and unethical business practices and personalities were first exposed there.
s and convoluted references, often comprehensible only to those who have read the magazine for many years. These include references to controversies or legal ambiguities in a subtle euphemistic code, such as replacing "drunk" with "tired and emotional
", or using the phrase "Ugandan discussions" to denote illicit sexual exploits; and more obvious parodies utilising easily recognisable stereotypes, such as the lampooning as "Sir Bufton Tufton" of Conservative
MPs viewed to be particularly old-fashioned and bigoted. Such terms have sometimes fallen into disuse as their hidden meanings have become better known.
The first half of each issue of the magazine, which consists chiefly of reporting and investigative journalism, tends to include these in-jokes in a more subtle manner, so as to maintain journalistic integrity, while the second half, more geared around unrestrained parody and cutting humour, tends to present itself in a more confrontational way.
typewriters – italics, pica and elite – lending an amateurish look to the pages. For some years after layout tools became available the magazine retained this technique to maintain its look, although the three older typewriters were replaced with an IBM composer. Today the magazine is still predominantly in black and white (though the cover and some cartoons inside appear in colour) and there is more text and less white space than is typical for a modern magazine. The former "Colour Section" was printed in black and white like the rest of the magazine: only the content was colourful.
, the conviction in January 2001 of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing
(Lockerbie: the flight from justice, May/June 2001), and the MMR vaccine
(The MMR: A Special Report, subtitled: "The story so far: a comprehensive review of the MMR vaccination/autism controversy
" 2002).
Another special issue was published in September 2004 to mark the death of long-time staff member Paul Foot
.
The magazine also features periodic columns such as "Library News", "Libel News", "Charity News" and others, detailing recent happenings in those areas. These follow predictable formats: library news usually chronicles local councils' bids to close libraries; libel news usually highlights what it sees as unjust libel judgements; while charity news usually questions the financial propriety of particular charities. "Poetry Corner" is the periodic contribution of obituaries by the fictional junior poet "E. J. Thribb".
, usually ending with a reference to 'Kilometres' Kington
).
of the day. The style is chosen to mock the perceived foibles and folly of each Prime Minister:
Not all of Private Eyes parodies have been unsympathetic. During the 1980s, Ingrams and John Wells
wrote fictional letters from Denis Thatcher
to Bill Deedes
in the Dear Bill
column, mocking Margaret Thatcher's husband as an amiable, golf-playing drunk. The column was collected in a series of books and became a play in which Wells played the fictional Denis, a character who is now inextricably "blurred [with] the real historical figure", according to Ingrams.http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/jun/12/politicalcolumnists.comment
At various times, Private Eye has also used the work of Ralph Steadman
, Wally Fawkes
, Timothy Birdsall
, Martin Honeysett
, Willie Rushton
, Gerald Scarfe
, Bill Tidy
, Robert Thompson, Ken Pyne, Geoff Thompson, "Jerodo", Ed McLauchlan, "Pearsall", Kevin Woodcock
, Brian Bagnall and Kathryn Lamb.
Some people have found the magazine's irreverence and occasionally distasteful humour offensive. Upon the death of Diana, Princess of Wales
, Private Eye printed a cover headed "MEDIA TO BLAME". Under this headline was a picture of many hundreds of people outside Buckingham Palace
, with one person commenting that the papers were "a disgrace", another agreeing, saying that it was impossible to get one anywhere, and another saying, "Borrow mine. It's got a picture of the car."
Following the abrupt change in reporting from newspapers immediately following her death, the issue also featured a mock retraction from "all newspapers" of everything negative that they had ever said about Diana. This was enough to cause a flood of complaints, many cancelled subscriptions, and the temporary removal of the magazine from the shelves of several newsagents. These included W H Smith
, which had previously refused to stock Private Eye until well into the 1970s, and was characterised in the magazine as "WH Smugg" or "WH Smut" on account of its policy of stocking pornographic magazines. The Diana issue is now one of the most highly sought-after back issues.
Similar complaints were received about the issues that followed the Ladbroke Grove rail crash
, the September 11, 2001 attacks
(the magazine even including a special "subscription cancellation coupon" for disgruntled readers to send in) and the Soham murders
. Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings
the magazine's cover featured Tony Blair
saying to Ken Livingstone
, "We must track down the evil mastermind behind the bombers...", to which Livingstone replies "...and invite him around for tea", in reference to his controversial invitation of Yusuf al-Qaradawi
to London.
visiting Britain with the caption "A nasty nip in the air" (subhead: "Piss off, Bandy Knees"). In the 1960s and 1970s the magazine mocked the gay rights movement
as "Poove Power".
, in which one wise man said to another: "Apparently, it's David Blunkett
's" (who at the time was involved in a scandal in which he was thought to have impregnated a married woman). Many readers sent letters accusing the magazine of blasphemy
and anti-Christian attitudes. One stated that the "witless, gutless buggers wouldn't dare mock Islam
", an observation later apparently vindicated when the magazine declined to publish the Danish Mohammed cartoons
for fear of firebombs (although it does regularly publish Islam-related humour). Many letters in the first issue of 2005 disagreed with the former readers' complaints, and some were parodies of those letters, 'complaining' about the following issue's cover – a cartoon depicting Santa
's sleigh shredded to pieces by a wind farm
: one said, "To use a picture of Our Lord Father Christmas and his Holy Reindeer being torn limb from limb while flying over a windfarm is inappropriate and blasphemous."
was substantially supportive of the interpretation by Andrew Wakefield
of published research in The Lancet
by the Royal Free Hospital
's Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, which described an apparent link between the vaccine, autism
and bowel problems. Initially dismissive of Wakefield, the magazine's 32-page special edition gave greater credence to Wakefield's assertion that MMR vaccines "should be given individually at not less than one year intervals." The British Medical Journal
issued a contemporary press release that concluded: "The Eye report is dangerous in that it is likely to be read by people who are concerned about the safety of the vaccine. A doubting parent who reads this might be convinced there is a genuine problem and the absence of any proper references will prevent them from checking the many misleading statements." Subsequently, editor Ian Hislop has told the author and columnist Ben Goldacre
that Private Eye is "not anti-MMR". In a review article published in February 2010, regular columnist Phil Hammond
, who contributes under the pseudonym "M.D.", stated that "Private Eye got it wrong in its coverage of MMR", in maintaining its support for Wakefield's position long after conflicting factors had emerged.
has become the most sued man in Britain. From 1969 to the mid-1980s, the magazine was represented by human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman
.
Those who have sued the magazine include many famous names, although the editor has noted that while politicians are a prime target, they "tend to take their medicine like men"; the largest number of lawsuits issue from journalists. For the tenth anniversary issue, the cover showed a cartoon headstone inscribed with a long list of well-known names, and the epitaph "They did not sue in vain".
An unlikely piece of British legal history occurred in what is now referred to as the "case" of Arkell v. Pressdram (1971). The plaintiff
was the subject of an article relating to illicit payments, and the magazine had ample evidence to back up the article. Arkell's lawyers wrote a letter which concluded: "His attitude to damages
will be governed by the nature of your reply." The magazine's response was, in full: "We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr J. Arkell. We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off." In the years following, the magazine would refer to this exchange as a euphemism for a blunt and coarse dismissal: for example, "We refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram". As with "tired and emotional
" this usage has spread beyond the magazine.
Possibly the most famous litigation case against the magazine was initiated by James Goldsmith
(known within Private Eyes pages as '(Sir) Jammy Fishpaste'), who managed to arrange for criminal libel
charges to be brought (effectively meaning that, if found guilty, those behind the Eye could be imprisoned). He sued over allegations that members of the Clermont Set
, including Goldsmith, had conspired to shelter Lord Lucan
after Lucan had murdered his family nanny, Sandra Rivett. Goldsmith won a partial victory and eventually reached a settlement with the magazine. The case threatened to bankrupt the magazine, which turned to its readers for financial support in the form of the Goldenballs Fund. Goldsmith himself was referred to as Jaws. The solicitor involved in many litigation cases against Private Eye, including the Goldsmith case, was Peter Carter-Ruck
(or "Carter-Fuck", as the Eye referred to him).
Robert Maxwell
(known as Captain Bob) sued the magazine for the suggestion he looked like a criminal, and won a significant sum. The editor, Ian Hislop, summarised the case: "I've just given a fat cheque to a fat Czech" and later claimed this was the only known example of a joke being told on News At Ten
. Sonia Sutcliffe also sued after allegations that she used her connection to her husband, the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe
, to make money. She won £600,000 which was later reduced to £60,000 on appeal. However, the initial award caused Hislop to quip outside the court: "If this is justice, I'm a banana." Readers raised a considerable sum in the "bananaballs fund", and Private Eye scored a PR coup by donating the surplus to the families of Sutcliffe's victims.
A rare victory for the magazine came in late 2001, when a libel case brought against the magazine by a Cornish
chartered accountant
, Stuart Condliffe, finally came to trial after ten years. The case was thrown out after only a few weeks as Condliffe had effectively accused his own legal team (Carter-Ruck and Associates) of lying.
In 2009 Private Eye successfully challenged an injunction brought against it by Michael Napier, former head of the Law Society
, who had sought to claim "confidentiality" for a report that he had been disciplined by the Law Society in relation to a conflict of interest. The ruling had wider significance in that it allowed other rulings by the Law Society to be publicised.
and Private Eye established the Paul Foot Award
, with an annual £10,000 prize fund, for investigative/campaigning journalism.
LYNTON HOUSE
7–12 TAVISTOCK SQUARE
LONDON WC1H 9LT
Company No. 00708923
Date of Incorporation: 24 November 1961}} which was bought as an "off the shelf" company by Peter Cook
in November 1961.
Private Eye does not publish explicit details of individuals concerned with its upkeep (and does not contain a list of its editors, writers and designers). In 1981 the book The Private Eye Story stated that the owners were Peter Cook (who owned most of the shareholding) with smaller shareholders including Dirk Bogarde
, Jane Asher
, and several of those involved with the founding of the magazine. Most of those on the list have since died, however, and it is unclear what happened to their shareholdings. Those concerned are reputedly contractually only to be able to sell their shareholdings at the price they originally paid for them.
Shareholders as of the annual return dated 26 March 2005, including shareholders who have inherited shares, are:
The other directors are Sheila Molnar, who is also the company secretary, and Richard Ingrams
.
caressing his erect and oversized penis, while hugging a female admirer. It is a detail from a frieze by "Dickie" Doyle
that once formed the masthead of Punch
magazine, which the editors of Private Eye had come to loathe for its perceived descent into complacency. The image, hidden away in the detail of the frieze, had appeared on the cover of Punch for nearly a century and was noticed by Malcolm Muggeridge
during a guest-editing spot on Private Eye. The 'Rabelaisian gnome' (as the character was called) was enlarged by Gerald Scarfe
, and put on the front cover of issue 69 at full size. He was then formally adopted as a mascot on the inside pages, as a symbol of the old, radical incarnation of Punch magazine that the Eye admired.
, a reference to his nickname "Baillie Vass". Under police supervision, 300 marchers carried banners proclaiming "High-Speed Vass Gets Things Done", "The Baillie Will No Fail Ye", "Hands off the Rann of Kutch!" and "Who's a Cretin?" (a reference to a former nickname, "Sir Alec Douglas-Who?"). The march progressed from Parliament Square
to Conservative Central Office
, where, accompanied by a brass band, the participants sang rousing songs in mock support of Home to the occupants of the building. This incident went almost entirely unreported in the national media.
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
and current affairs
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
, edited by Ian Hislop
Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
.
Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency, corruption, pomposity or self-importance and it has become a self-styled "thorn in the side" of the British establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
. It has always received criticism from some quarters for its irreverent style and for its willingness to print stories that are controversial and allegedly defamatory. This was reflected in the past by the large number of libel lawsuits against it, a phenomenon for which it became notorious.
As Britain's best-selling current affairs magazine, such is its long-term popularity and impact that many recurring in-jokes from Private Eye
Recurring in-jokes in Private Eye
The fortnightly British satirical magazine Private Eye has long had a reputation for using euphemistic and irreverent substitute names and titles for persons, groups and organisations and has coined a number of expressions to describe sex, drugs, alcohol and other aspects of human activity...
have entered popular culture.
History
The forerunner of Private Eye was a school magazine, The Salopian, edited by Richard IngramsRichard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
, Willie Rushton
Willie Rushton
William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.- School and army :William George Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in the family home at Scarsdale Villas,...
, Christopher Booker
Christopher Booker
Christopher John Penrice Booker is an English journalist and author. In 1961, he was one of the founders of the magazine Private Eye, and has contributed to it for over four decades. He has been a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph since 1990...
and Paul Foot
Paul Foot
Paul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
at Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...
in the mid-1950s. After their National Service
Conscription in the United Kingdom
Conscription in the United Kingdom has existed for two periods in modern times. The first was from 1916 to 1919, the second was from 1939 to 1960, with the last conscripted soldiers leaving the service in 1963...
, Ingrams and Foot went as undergraduates to Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, where they met their future collaborators Peter Usborne, Andrew Osmond, John Wells
John Wells (satirist)
John Wells was an English actor, writer and satirist, educated at Eastbourne College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford...
and Danae Brook, among others.
The magazine proper began when Peter Usborne learned of a new printing process, photo-litho offset
Offset printing
Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface...
, which meant that anybody with a typewriter
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
and Letraset
Letraset
Letraset is a company based in the Kingsnorth Industrial Estate in Ashford, Kent, UK.It is known mainly for manufacturing sheets of artwork elements which can be transferred to artwork being prepared. The name Letraset was often used to refer generically to sheets of dry transferrable lettering of...
could produce a magazine. The publication was initially funded by Osmond and was launched in 1961. It was named when Andrew Osmond looked for ideas in the famous recruiting poster of Lord Kitchener
Lord Kitchener Wants You
A 1914 recruitment poster depicting Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, above the words "WANTS YOU" was the most famous image used in the British Army recruitment campaign of World War I. It has inspired many imitations.-Origins:...
(an image of Kitchener pointing with the caption "Wants You") and, in particular, the pointing finger. After the name Finger was rejected, Osmond suggested Private Eye
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
, in the sense of someone who "fingers" a suspect. The magazine was initially edited by Christopher Booker and designed by Willie Rushton, who also drew cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s for it. Its later editor Richard Ingrams, who was then pursuing a career as an actor, shared the editorship with Booker, from around issue 10, and took over fully at issue 40. At first Private Eye was merely a vehicle for silly jokes: an extension of the original school magazine, and an alternative to Punch. However, according to Booker, it simply got "caught up in the rage for satire".
After the magazine's initial success, more funding was provided by Nicholas Luard
Nicholas Luard
Nicholas Lamert Luard was a writer and politician, but is perhaps best known for his activities in the early 1960s: co-founding The Establishment with Peter Cook and being one of the Lords Gnome of Private Eye....
and Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
, who ran The Establishment
The Establishment (club)
The Establishment was a London nightclub which opened in October 1961, at 18 Greek Street, Soho and was famous in retrospect for satire although actually more notable at the time for jazz and other events. It was founded by Peter Cook and Nicholas Luard, both of whom were also important in the...
– a satirical nightclub - and Private Eye became a fully professional publication.
Others essential to the development of the magazine were Auberon Waugh
Auberon Waugh
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
, Claud Cockburn
Claud Cockburn
Francis Claud Cockburn was a British journalist. He was well known proponent of communism. His saying, "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies.He was the second cousin of novelist Evelyn Waugh....
(who had run a pre-war scandal sheet, The Week
The Week
The Week, styled as THE WEEK, is a weekly news magazine.-History:It was founded in the United Kingdom by Jolyon Connell in 1995. In April 2001, the magazine began publishing an American edition; an Australian edition followed in October 2008. Dennis Publishing publishes the U.K. and Australian...
), Barry Fantoni
Barry Fantoni
Barry Ernest Fantoni is a writer, comic strip cartoonist and jazz musician of Italian and Jewish descent, most famous for his work with the magazine Private Eye, for whom he also created Neasden F.C. As of 2005 he remains a shareholder in the company that owns Private Eye, Pressdram Limited...
, Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Anthony Scarfe, CBE, RDI, is an English cartoonist and illustrator. He worked as editorial cartoonist for The Sunday Times and illustrator for The New Yorker...
, Tony Rushton, Patrick Marnham
Patrick Marnham
Patrick Marnham is an English writer, journalist and biographer. He is primarily known for his biographies, where he has covered subjects as diverse as Diego Rivera, Georges Simenon, Jean Moulin and Mary Wesley. As a journalist, he has written for Private Eye, The Independent and The Spectator...
and Candida Betjeman. Christopher Logue
Christopher Logue
Christopher Logue, CBE is an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival. He has also written for the theatre and cinema as well as acting in a number of films. His two screenplays are Savage Messiah and The End of Arthur's Marriage...
was another long-time contributor, providing a column of "True Stories" featuring cuttings from the national press. The gossip columnist
Gossip columnist
A gossip columnist is someone who writes a gossip column in a newspaper or magazine, especially a gossip magazine. Gossip columns are material written in a light, informal style, which relates the gossip columnist's opinions about the personal lives or conduct of celebrities from show business ,...
Nigel Dempster
Nigel Dempster
Nigel Richard Patton Dempster was a British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist. Best known for his celebrity gossip columns in newspapers, his work appeared in the Daily Express and Daily Mail and also in Private Eye magazine...
wrote extensively for the magazine before he fell out with the editor and other writers, and Paul Foot
Paul Foot
Paul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
wrote on politics, local government and corruption.
Ingrams continued as editor until 1986, when he was succeeded by Ian Hislop
Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
. Ingrams is still chairman of the holding company.
Nature of the magazine
Writ
In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court...
s. These include three issued by Sir James Goldsmith
James Goldsmith
Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...
and several by Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...
, one of which resulted in costs and reported damages of £225,000 and attacks on the magazine through the publication of a book, Malice in Wonderland, and a magazine, Not Private Eye
Not Private Eye
Not Private Eye was a one-off spoof of the British satirical magazine Private Eye.- Overview :The spoof of Private Eye was published in December 1986 by Robert Maxwell, to celebrate his £55,000 libel victory over Private Eye caused by an accusation of attempted cash for peerages...
, published by Maxwell. Its defenders point out that it often carries news that the mainstream press will not use for fear of legal reprisals or because it is of minority interest.
Unearthing scandals and breaking news
Some of the contributors to Private Eye are media figures or specialists in their field who write anonymously, often under humorous pseudonyms. Stories sometimes originate from writers for more mainstream publications who cannot get their stories published by their main employers.A financial column at the back of the magazine ("In the City", written by Michael Gillard) has contributed to a wide city and business readership as a large number of financial scandals and unethical business practices and personalities were first exposed there.
Recurring in-jokes
The magazine has a number of recurring in-jokeIn-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
s and convoluted references, often comprehensible only to those who have read the magazine for many years. These include references to controversies or legal ambiguities in a subtle euphemistic code, such as replacing "drunk" with "tired and emotional
Tired and emotional
The phrase tired and emotional is a chiefly British euphemism for drunk. It was popularised by the British satirical magazine Private Eye in 1967 after being used in a spoof diplomatic memo to describe the state of Labour Cabinet minister George Brown, but is now used as a stock phrase...
", or using the phrase "Ugandan discussions" to denote illicit sexual exploits; and more obvious parodies utilising easily recognisable stereotypes, such as the lampooning as "Sir Bufton Tufton" of Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MPs viewed to be particularly old-fashioned and bigoted. Such terms have sometimes fallen into disuse as their hidden meanings have become better known.
The first half of each issue of the magazine, which consists chiefly of reporting and investigative journalism, tends to include these in-jokes in a more subtle manner, so as to maintain journalistic integrity, while the second half, more geared around unrestrained parody and cutting humour, tends to present itself in a more confrontational way.
Layout and style
Private Eye has lagged behind other magazines in adopting various typesetting and printing technologies. At the start it was laid out with scissors and paste and typed on three IBM ExecutiveIBM Electric typewriter
The IBM Electric typewriters were a series of electric typewriters that IBM manufactured, starting in the mid-1930s. They used the conventional moving carriage and typebar mechanism, as opposed to the fixed carriage and type ball used in the IBM Selectric, introduced in 1961...
typewriters – italics, pica and elite – lending an amateurish look to the pages. For some years after layout tools became available the magazine retained this technique to maintain its look, although the three older typewriters were replaced with an IBM composer. Today the magazine is still predominantly in black and white (though the cover and some cartoons inside appear in colour) and there is more text and less white space than is typical for a modern magazine. The former "Colour Section" was printed in black and white like the rest of the magazine: only the content was colourful.
Special editions
The magazine has published a series of independent special editions dedicated solely to news reporting of particular current events, such as government inadequacy over the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak2001 UK foot and mouth crisis
The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. This epizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease in farms in most of the British countryside. Over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed in an eventually successful attempt to...
, the conviction in January 2001 of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
(Lockerbie: the flight from justice, May/June 2001), and the MMR vaccine
MMR vaccine
The MMR vaccine is an immunization shot against measles, mumps, and rubella . It was first developed by Maurice Hilleman while at Merck in the late 1960s....
(The MMR: A Special Report, subtitled: "The story so far: a comprehensive review of the MMR vaccination/autism controversy
MMR vaccine controversy
The MMR vaccine controversy was a case of scientific misconduct which triggered a health scare. It followed the publication in 1998 of a paper in the medical journal The Lancet which presented apparent evidence that autism spectrum disorders could be caused by the MMR vaccine, an immunization...
" 2002).
Another special issue was published in September 2004 to mark the death of long-time staff member Paul Foot
Paul Foot
Paul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
.
Regular columns
- "Ad Nauseam" – the excesses, plagiarism and creative failings of the advertisingAdvertisingAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
industry. - "Brussels Sprouts" – the foibles of the European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and its parliamentEuropean ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
. - "Called to Ordure" – reporting from recent committee appearances by regulators or senior civil servants, written by the pseudonymous "Gavel Basher".
- "Commentatorballs" previously known as ColemanballsColemanballsColemanballs is a term coined by Private Eye magazine to describe verbal gaffes perpetrated by sports commentators. The word Colemanballs probably borrows from Colemans Meatballs, once familiar in the UK and sold by the company ColemanNatural...
– verbal gaffes from broadcasting. Previously named after the former BBC broadcaster David ColemanDavid ColemanDavid Coleman, OBE is an English former sports commentator and TV presenter who worked for the BBC for almost fifty years. In 2000, he was awarded the Olympic Order, the highest honour of the Olympic movement....
, who was adjudged particularly prone to such solecisms during his many sporting commentaries. Variants also appear in which publications and press releases are mocked for inappropriately latching on to a current fad to draw unwarranted attention to something else, such as "Dianaballs" (following Princess DianaDiana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
's death in 1997), "Millenniumballs" (1999), "Warballs" (following the September 11, 2001 attacksSeptember 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
), "Tsunamiballs" (following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake2004 Indian Ocean earthquakeThe 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
), "Obamaballs" (after the election of President Barack ObamaBarack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
in 2008), and "Electionballs". - "Curse of Gnome" An irregular column in which targets of Private Eye who have responded in return are mocked when they suffer a severe misfortune.
- "Medicine Balls" – medical news and coverage of the National Health ServiceNational Health ServiceThe National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
, written by the general practitioner (and sometime comedian) Dr Phil HammondPhil Hammond (comedian)Dr Philip Hammond is a general practitioner who has become noted as a comedian and commentator on health issues in the United Kingdom. Hammond was educated at Marlborough Grammar School, St John's Comprehensive, Marlborough, and Marlborough College...
. - "Down On The Farm" – agricultural issues.
- "Down On The Fishfarm" – issues relating to fish farming. Subsequently expanded to cover various environmental issues and renamed "Eco-Gnomics", after several alternative titles were tried out.
- "Eye TV" – analysis of television programmes and news/criticism of the UK television industry, written by the pseudonymous "Remote Controller". (ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
is a British TV channel.) - "Funny Old World" – supposedly genuine quirky news stories from around the world, and one of the few columns with a by-line (Victor Lewis-SmithVictor Lewis-SmithVictor Lewis-Smith is a British satirist, producer, critic and prankster. He is known for his sarcasm and biting criticism.-Radio and recordings:...
). Continued an earlier column, Christopher Logue's True Stories. - "Hackwatch" – a column which highlights inconsistency and inaccuracy by prominent journalists.
- "High Principals" – examining further and higher education issues and spotlighting individuals who might have acted in their own interests, rather than those of education.
- "HP Sauce" – covering politics and politicians. ("HP" refers to the Houses of ParliamentPalace of WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
, as well as being an actual brandHP SauceHP Sauce is a popular brown sauce originally produced by HP Foods in the UK, now produced by H.J. Heinz in the Netherlands.It is the best-known brand of brown sauce in the United Kingdom and Canada as well as the best selling, with 71% of the UK market....
of sauce.) - "In The Back" – in-depth investigative journalismInvestigative journalismInvestigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
, often taking the side of the downtrodden. This section was overseen by Paul FootPaul FootPaul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
until his death in 2004; under his tenure it was known as Footnotes. It often features stories on potential miscarriages of justice and stories on other embarrassing establishment misdeeds. - "In The City" – analysis of financial and city affairs and people.
- "Just Fancy That" – contradictory snippets reprinted from press publications, sometimes from within a single edition of the same newspaper.
- "Letter From..." – column purporting to be written by a resident of a particular country highlighting its political or social situation. The name derives from Alistair CookeAlistair CookeAlfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...
's Letter from AmericaLetter from AmericaLetter from America was a weekly 15-minute radio series on BBC Radio 4, previously called the Home Service, which ran for 2,869 shows from 24 March 1946 to 20 February 2004, making it the longest-running speech radio programme in history...
. - "Levelling the Playing Fields" – chronicling what the magazine sees as the public sector's bid to sell off as much of its remaining recreational green space as possible to supermarkets or housing developers.
- "Literary Review" – book reviews and news from the world of publishing and bookselling, written by the pseudonymous "Bookworm". The masthead from the magazine of the same nameLiterary ReviewLiterary Review is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at Edinburgh University. Its offices are currently on Lexington Street in Soho, London, and it has a circulation of 44,750. Britain's principal literary monthly, the magazine was...
, formerly edited by Auberon WaughAuberon WaughAuberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
(aka Abraham Wargs, "The Voice of Himself"), is lifted for this section. Regular sections include a critical review; "What You Didn't Miss", a pastiche summary of a recent book; "Books & Bookmen", articles about the absurdities of the publishing business (its title taken from a now-defunct British magazine); and "Library News". The column produces an annual summary of "logrolling", the activity whereby literary colleagues publish favourable reviews of each other's books, or where rivals have disparaged their competitor's publications. Bookworm's anonymity makes it impossible to identify where this applies to Private Eye, but readers lampooned the column for an uncharacteristically positive review of Paul O'GradyPaul O'GradyPaul James Michael O'Grady MBE is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer and radio DJ. He is best known for presenting the daytime chat television series, The Paul O'Grady Show and, more recently, Paul O'Grady Live, as well as his drag queen comedic alter ego, Lily Savage, as...
's 2009 autobiography. - "Man/Woman in the Eye" – usually detailing the past exploits of someone recently appointed into a government advisory role and why these exploits make their appointment unsuitable or contradictory.
- "Music and Musicians" – gossip on the artistic and political intrigues behind the scenes in the world of classical music. Written by "Lunchtime O'Boulez": Lunchtime O'Booze has been a resident Private Eye journalist since the magazine's earliest days; Pierre BoulezPierre BoulezPierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, French avant garde composer and conductor, was a controversial choice as principal conductor of the BBC Symphony OrchestraBBC Symphony OrchestraThe BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
in the early 1970s. In an earlier incarnation, the column published scurrilous and unfounded gossip about the London Symphony OrchestraLondon Symphony OrchestraThe London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
, which resulted in a significant libel pay-out.) The title of the column is taken from a now-defunct British magazine which was a sister publication of Books and Bookmen. - "News" (previously called "The Colour Section") – effectively the stories the magazine is most proud of that week or thinks most important, placed at its front.
- "Nooks & Corners" – architectural criticism. This is one of the magazine's most famous sections. It was originally titled "Nooks & Corners of the New Barbarism", a reference to the architectural movement known as New Brutalism. The column was founded by John BetjemanJohn BetjemanSir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
, and written by architectural historian Gavin StampGavin StampGavin Stamp is a British writer and architectural historian. He is a trustee of the Twentieth Century Society, a registered charity which promotes the appreciation of modern architecture and the conservation of Britain’s architectural heritage...
using the name 'Piloti'. - "Rotten Boroughs" – a column reporting on dubious practices, absurdity and occasionally corruption in local government. The name is a play on the term rotten boroughRotten boroughA "rotten", "decayed" or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament....
. This section, edited by Tim Minogue, is sourced via scores of tips and leads from councillors, whistleblowing council officials, freelance journalists and members of the public. - "Signal Failures" – covering railway issues. The author name "Dr B. Ching" refers to Dr Richard BeechingRichard BeechingRichard Beeching, Baron Beeching , commonly known as Doctor Beeching, was chairman of British Railways and a physicist and engineer...
, whose report led to widespread cuts to the British railway network in the 1960s. - "Street of Shame" – covering journalism, newspapers and other press stories, and usually largely written by Francis WheenFrancis WheenFrancis James Baird Wheen is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster.-Early life and education:Wheen was born into an army family and educated at two independent schools: Copthorne Preparatory School near Crawley, West Sussex and Harrow School in north west London.-Life and career:Running...
and Adam Macqueen. The title refers to Fleet StreetFleet StreetFleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
. - "Squarebasher" – looking at military issues relating to all the armed forces, including deployments, equipment and training.
- "Under The Microscope" – looking at scientific issues.
- "Wikipedia Whispers" – reporting cases of personalities apparently editing their own WikipediaWikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
entries to make them more favourable. The name recalls "Wicked Whispers", a section in the "3am" feature of the Daily Mirror newspaper.
The magazine also features periodic columns such as "Library News", "Libel News", "Charity News" and others, detailing recent happenings in those areas. These follow predictable formats: library news usually chronicles local councils' bids to close libraries; libel news usually highlights what it sees as unjust libel judgements; while charity news usually questions the financial propriety of particular charities. "Poetry Corner" is the periodic contribution of obituaries by the fictional junior poet "E. J. Thribb".
Satirical columns
- "Court Circular" – a parody of The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
and The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
Court Circular sections which detail the activities of the Royal Family: for example, "HRH Prince Harry attended the opening of a bottle of vodka at Slappers Niteclub in Kensington." - "Diary" – a parody of the weekly 'diary' column which appears in The SpectatorThe SpectatorThe Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
magazine, written by Craig BrownCraig Brown (satirist)Craig Edward Moncrieff Brown is a British critic and satirist from England, probably best known for his work in Private Eye.-Biography:...
in the style of the chosen celebrity. One of the few regular columns with a byline, which was introduced after Alan ClarkAlan ClarkAlan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark was a British Conservative MP and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade, and Defence, and became a privy counsellor in 1991...
sued Peter BradshawPeter BradshawPeter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
, then of the London Evening Standard, for his unattributed parody of Clark's diariesAlan Clark DiariesAlan Clark started keeping a regular diary in 1955 which lasted until August 1999, during his second spell as a Member of Parliament, when he was incapacitated due to the onset of the brain tumour which was to be the cause of his death a month later...
.
Newspaper parodies
The latter half of the magazine is taken up with parodies of newspapers, spoofing various publications' layout, writing styles and adverts. Where further content is implied, but omitted, this is said to continue "on page 94".- A Doctor Writes – the fictional "A. Doctor" or "Dr Thomas Utterfraud" parodies newspaper articles on topical medical conditions, particularly those by Dr Thomas Stuttaford.
- A Taxi Driver Writes – a view from a purported taxi driver, usually a politician or media personality, who will be named as (e.g.) No. 13458 J Prescott. The column gives excessively one-sided views, usually of a right-wing nature, saying that a named group or individual should be "strung up" (hanged).
- Dave Spart – ultra-left wing activist, always representing a ridiculous-sounding union (such as the National Amalgamated Union of Sixth-Form Operatives and Allied Trades), collective or magazine, which is frequently based in NeasdenNeasdenNeasden is an area in northwest London, UK. It forms part of the London Borough of Brent.-History:The area was recorded as Neasdun in 939 AD and the name is derived from the Old English nēos = 'nose' and dūn = 'hill'. It means 'the nose-shaped hill' referring to a well-defined landmark of this area...
. Spart's views attempt to highlight alleged misconduct, prejudice or general wrongdoing, but often end up being contradictory and illogical. The name Spart is derived from the German Spartacus League which existed during World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and other subsequent revolutionary groups. - Glenda SlaggGlenda SlaggGlenda Slagg is a fictional parodic columnist in the satirical magazine Private Eye. She first appeared in the mid-1960s. Her writing style is a pastiche of several female columnists in British newspapers, notably Jean Rook and Lynda Lee-Potter: brash, vitriolic and inconsistent.Glenda's column...
– brash, libidinous and self-contradictory female reporter based on Jean RookJean RookJean Kathleen Rook was an English journalist dubbed The First Lady of Fleet Street for her regular opinion column in the Daily Express...
and Lynda Lee-PotterLynda Lee-PotterLynda Lee-Potter OBE was a columnist for the British newspaper the Daily Mail.-Early years:...
. Every sentence from Slagg ends with an onslaught of punctuation made up of repeated "?" and "!" signs, and often features intermittent editorial commentary such as "you've done this already, get on with it" or, ultimately, "you're fired". - From The Messageboards – introduced in 2008, this is a spoof of Internet forumInternet forumAn Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
s, in particular those of BBC Radio 5 LiveBBC Radio 5 LiveBBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
. - Gnomemart – the Christmas special edition of Private Eye includes spoof adverts for expensive but useless mail-order gadgets, usually endorsed by topical celebrities and capable of playing topical songs or TV theme tunes.
- In the hot metalHot metal typesettingIn printing and typography, hot metal typesetting refers to 19th-century technologies for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs...
era, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
was first lampooned as The Grauniad for its frequent typographical errors. The Eye continues to use the name, and the word has entered the language. - Lunchtime O'Booze has been among the magazine's resident journalists since the early days. The name is a comment on journalists' supposed traditional fondness for alcohol, their prandial habits, and the suspicion that they pick up many of their stories in public housePublic houseA public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s. - Mary Ann Bighead – a mockery of the former The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
columnist and assistant editor Mary Ann SieghartMary Ann SieghartMary Ann Sieghart is a former assistant editor of The Times, where she wrote columns about politics, social affairs and life generally. She now writes a weekly political column in The Independent and presents Profile and Beyond Westminster on Radio 4...
. Bighead is lampooned for her pretentions, ignorance, boastfulness about of her children Brainella and Intelligencia, high standard of living, travels (mainly to developing countries where she patronises the locals), and the fact that she can speak so many languages (including SwahiliSwahili languageSwahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
, TagalogTagalog languageTagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
and 13th Century MongolianMongolian languageThe Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
). - Neasden United FC, playing in the "North Circular Relegation League", is a fictional football club from NeasdenNeasdenNeasden is an area in northwest London, UK. It forms part of the London Borough of Brent.-History:The area was recorded as Neasdun in 939 AD and the name is derived from the Old English nēos = 'nose' and dūn = 'hill'. It means 'the nose-shaped hill' referring to a well-defined landmark of this area...
, North London, often used to satirise English football in general with the manager "ashen-faced supremo Ron Knee, 59" possibly from Ron AtkinsonRon AtkinsonRonald Ernest Atkinson, commonly known as "Big Ron" and "Bojangles" is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits...
and their only two fans "Sid and Doris Bonkers", playing on the idea of tiny devoted fanbases of unsuccessful football clubs. - Obvious headline – banal stories about celebrities that receive extensive reporting in the national press are rewritten as anonymous headlines, such as "SHOCK NEWS: MAN HAS SEX WITH SECRETARY". This is usually "EXCLUSIVE TO ALL NEWSPAPERS". This is often followed by slightly oblique, "shocking" references to the PopePopeThe Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
being Catholic, and to bears defecating in the woods. - Official Apology or Product Recall – spoofs the official apologies and product recall notices that newspapers are mandated to print. For example, the subject might be the English national football team. Always starts "In common with all other newspapers" (or retailers), implying that none has apologised.
- Poetry Corner – trite obituaries of the recently deceased in the form of poems from the fictional teenage poet E. J. ThribbE. J. ThribbE. J. Thribb has been the fictitious poet-in-residence at the satirical magazine Private Eye since 1972; the poems are in reality written by Barry Fantoni. Thribb's poems are usually about recently deceased famous people, and titled 'in memoriam', with the first line almost invariably reading: "So...
(17½). The poems usually bear the heading "In Memoriam..." and begin "So. Farewell then". - Polly Filler – a vapid and self-centred female "lifestyle" columnist, whose irrelevant personal escapades and gossip serve solely to fill column inches. She complains about the workload of the modern woman whilst passing all parental responsibility onto "the au pairAu pairAn au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a small monetary allowance for personal use...
", who always comes from a less-advanced country, is paid a pittance, and fails to understand the workings of some mundane aspect of "lifestyle" life. Her name is derived from Polyfilla, a DIY product used to fill holes and cracks in plaster. Polly's sister Penny DreadfulPenny DreadfulA penny dreadful was a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing an penny...
makes an occasional appearance. Like several Private Eye regulars, Polly is based on more than one female columnist, but Jane MooreJane MooreJane Moore is a British journalist, author and television presenter.-Early life:Moore was born in Oxford, England. Her father was a professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, and her mother was a teacher...
of The SunThe Sun (newspaper)The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
, whose remarks are often echoed by Polly or commented on elsewhere in the magazine, is a major source. Additionally, the column mocks Rupert MurdochRupert MurdochKeith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's media empire in general and Sky televisionBritish Sky BroadcastingBritish Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
in particular, as Polly's husband, "the useless Simon", is usually mentioned as being in front of the television (wasting time) watching exotic sports on obscure satellite television channels. - Police log – Neasden Central Police Station – a fictional police station log, satirising current police policies that are met with general contempt and/or disdain. Ordinary police activities are ignored, with police attention limited to "counter-terrorism", obsessive political correctness and pointless bureaucracy. For example, one incident reports on an elderly woman being attacked by a gang of youths, arrested (and unfortunately dying of "natural causes" in police custody) for infringing their right to terrorise pensioners.
- Pop Scene by Maureen Cleavage – originally a spoof of press coverage of the music business and in particular Maureen CleaveMaureen CleaveMaureen Cleave is an English journalist who worked for the London Evening News and London Evening Standard in the 1960s, conducting interviews with famous musicians of the era, including Bob Dylan and John Lennon....
, who had a column in the Evening StandardEvening StandardThe Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
. In the early to mid-1960s, popular culture was starting to be taken more seriously by the heavier newspapers; some claim that Private Eye considered this approach pretentious and ripe for ridicule, although others argue that the magazine was in fact covering popular culture before some of the more serious newspapers. This section also provided an outlet for satirical comment on popular musicians, whose antics were usually attributed to the fictional pop group "The Turds" and their charismatic leader "Spiggy Topes". Topes and the Turds were originally based on The BeatlesThe BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and a thinly disguised John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, but the names were eventually applied to any rock star or band whose excesses featured in the popular press. (Although at the same time there was a real group called The Thyrds who appeared in the final of ITV's Ready, Steady, Win! competition.) - Sally Jockstrap – a fictional sports columnist who is incapable of correctly reporting any sporting facts. Her articles are usually a mishmash of references to several sports, along the lines of "there was drama at TwickenhamTwickenham StadiumTwickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...
as Michael SchumacherMichael SchumacherMichael Schumacher is a German Formula One racing driver for the Mercedes GP team. Famous for his eleven-year spell with Ferrari, Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion and is widely regarded as the greatest F1 driver of all time...
double faulted to give ArsenalArsenal F.C.Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
victory". Said to be inspired by Lynne TrussLynne TrussLynne Truss is an English writer and journalist, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.-Early life:...
. - The Has-Beano – a pastiche of Britain's long-running BeanoThe BeanoThe Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
children's comic, used to satirise The SpectatorThe SpectatorThe Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
and Boris JohnsonBoris JohnsonAlexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
(who features as the lead character, Boris the MenaceDennis the Menace (UK)Dennis the Menace, later called Dennis the Menace and Gnasher and now Dennis and Gnasher, is a long-running comic strip in the British children's comic The Beano, published by D. C...
). - Toy-town News or Nursery Times – a newspaper based on the mythology of children's stories. For example, the royal butler Paul BurrellPaul BurrellPaul Burrell, RVM is a former servant of the British Royal Household. He was a footman for Queen Elizabeth II and later butler to Diana, Princess of Wales...
was satirised as the "Knave of Hearts" who was "lent" tarts "for safe keeping"Burrell affairThe Burrell affair was a scandal in 2002 which arose from a number of allegations about the behaviour of the British Royal Family and their servants...
, rather than stealing them as in the rhyme. Nigel DempsterNigel DempsterNigel Richard Patton Dempster was a British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist. Best known for his celebrity gossip columns in newspapers, his work appeared in the Daily Express and Daily Mail and also in Private Eye magazine...
is referred to as "Humpty Dumpster". - Ye Daily Tudorgraph – a newspaper written in mock TudorTudor dynastyThe Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
period language, set in that time and clearly a parody of the Daily Telegraph. It usually suggests that former Telegraph editor Bill DeedesBill DeedesWilliam Francis Deedes, Baron Deedes, KBE, MC, PC, DL was a British Conservative Party politician, army officer and journalist; he is to date the only person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph.-Early life and...
was a young boy at the time.
Mini-sections
The magazine contains a variety of regular sections, consisting of small amusing examples of different aspects of everyday life, generally sent in by readers. They include "Colemanballs" (gaffes by sports commentators with poor or accidentally inaccurate command of the English language), "Dumb Britain" (examples of poor knowledge taken from British quiz shows) and "Let's Parlez Franglais" (which mocks recent political events, mainly within Europe, by creating an imaginary transcript in FranglaisFranglais
Franglais , a portmanteau combining the French words "français" and "anglais" , is a slang term for an interlanguage, although the word has different overtones in French and English....
, usually ending with a reference to 'Kilometres' Kington
Miles Kington
Miles Beresford Kington was a British journalist, musician and broadcaster.-Early life :...
).
Prime Minister parodies
A traditional fixture in Private Eye is a full-page parody of the Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
of the day. The style is chosen to mock the perceived foibles and folly of each Prime Minister:
- Harold WilsonHarold WilsonJames Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
, who cultivated an exaggerated working class image, was mocked in "Mrs. Wilson's Diary", supposedly written by his wife, Mary Wilson. This parodied Mrs. Dale's Diary, a popular BBC radio series. - Edward HeathEdward HeathSir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
, whose government was beset by economic and political problems, presided over Heathco, permanently "going out of business". - As leader of the opposition to Margaret ThatcherMargaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, Neil KinnockNeil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
was shown as "Dan Dire" (based on the cartoon character Dan DareDan DareDan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...
), in his struggle against the Maggon, "Supreme Ruler of the Universe". - John MajorJohn MajorSir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
, undermined and embarrassed by his party's right wing during the 1990s, vented his frustrations in "The Secret Diary of John Major", inspired by the Sue TownsendSue Townsend-Adrian Mole series:* The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ , her best selling book, and the best-selling new British fiction book of the 1980s.* The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole * The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole...
books - Tony BlairTony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
was portrayed as the sanctimonious Vicar of St. Albion's, a fictional parish church, in "St. Albion's Parish News". Editor Ian Hislop has said the idea came about after Blair walked into Downing Street carrying his guitar in 1997, like "the new vicar [about] to sing KumbayaKumbaya"Kumbaya" or "Kumbayah" — is an African-American spiritual song from the 1930s. It enjoyed newfound popularity during the folk revival of the 1960s and became a standard campfire song in Scouting and nature-oriented organizations...
." Richard Ingrams wrote in The ObserverThe ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
that he was amused to see the parody become true, after Blair left office and formed the Faith FoundationTony Blair Faith FoundationThe Tony Blair Faith Foundation was established by Tony Blair in May 2008.-The Foundation:The Foundation was launched in May 2008 in New York at the headquarters of media group Time Warner. In his speech Blair outlined its aim that "idealism becomes the new realism", and that one of its goals was...
to promote religious harmony. - During his government, Gordon BrownGordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
(2007–10) was mocked as the Supreme Leader of a North KoreaNorth KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
n-style state, railing against the "running dog ex-Comrade Blair" and secret plots to depose him. This enabled Private Eye to comment on Brown's lack of election as Prime Minister, either by the public or the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, as well as his supposed StalinistStalinismStalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
style of leadership. - The current column features the newsletter of the fictional "New Coalition Academy (formerly Brown's Comprehensive)", in which Prime Minister David CameronDavid CameronDavid William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
and Deputy Prime Minister Nick CleggNick CleggNicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...
are portrayed as headmaster and deputy headmaster. The motto of the Academy is "Duo in Uno".
Not all of Private Eyes parodies have been unsympathetic. During the 1980s, Ingrams and John Wells
John Wells
John Wells may refer to:People* John C. Wells , British linguist, phonetician and Esperantist* Jonathan Wells , real name John Corrigan Wells...
wrote fictional letters from Denis Thatcher
Denis Thatcher
Major Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD was a British businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was born in Lewisham, London, the elder child of a New Zealand-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert Thatcher, and his wife Kathleen, née Bird...
to Bill Deedes
Bill Deedes
William Francis Deedes, Baron Deedes, KBE, MC, PC, DL was a British Conservative Party politician, army officer and journalist; he is to date the only person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph.-Early life and...
in the Dear Bill
Dear Bill
The "Dear Bill" letters were a regular feature in the British satirical magazine Private Eye, purporting to be the private correspondence of Denis Thatcher, husband of the then-Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher...
column, mocking Margaret Thatcher's husband as an amiable, golf-playing drunk. The column was collected in a series of books and became a play in which Wells played the fictional Denis, a character who is now inextricably "blurred [with] the real historical figure", according to Ingrams.http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/jun/12/politicalcolumnists.comment
Miscellanea
- Classified – adverts from readers. In the past, these commonly featured personal ads which used code words to describe particular sexual acts. Currently, the adverts usually include products for sale, conspiracy theorists promoting their ideas, and the "Eye Need" adverts in which people request money for personal causes.
- Crossword – a cryptic prize crosswordCrosswordA crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer...
, notable for its vulgarity. In the early 1970s the crossword was set by the LabourLabour Party (UK)The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MPMember of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Tom Driberg, under the pseudonym of "TiresiasTiresiasIn Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo; Tiresias participated fully in seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus...
" (supposedly "a distinguished academic churchman"). it was set by one of The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s cryptic crossword setters, Eddie James ("Brummie" in the paper) under the name Cyclops. The crossword frequently contains offensive language and references (both in the clues and the solutions), and a knowledge of the magazine's in-jokes and slang is necessary to solve it. - Letters – this frequently includes letters from high-profile figures, sometimes in order for the magazine to print an apology and avoid litigation. Other letters express disgust at a recent article or cartoon, many ending by saying (sometimes in jest) that they will (or will not) cancel their subscription. This section also prints celebrity 'lookalikes' and regularly prints an embarrassing picture of Andrew NeilAndrew NeilAndrew Ferguson Neil is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster.He currently works for the BBC, presenting the live political programmes The Daily Politics and This Week...
(see: recurring in-jokes). - The Book of... – a spoof of the Old TestamentOld TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
, applying language and imagery reminiscent of the King James Bible to current affairs in the Middle East. - The Alternative Rocky Horror Prayer Book – a pastiche of attempts to update Anglican religious ceremonies into more modern versions.
- The cover, with its famous speech bubble, putting ironic or humorous comments into the mouths of famous people in response to topical events.
Defunct sections
- Auberon WaughAuberon WaughAuberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
's Diary – Waugh wrote a regular diary for the magazine, usually combining real events from his own life with fictional episodes such as parties with the QueenElizabeth II of the United KingdomElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
), from the early 1970s until 1985. It was generally written in the persona of an ultra-right-wing country gentleman, a subtle exaggeration of his own personality. He described it as the world's first example of journalism specifically dedicated to telling lies. - London Calling – a round-up of news, especially of the "loony leftLoony leftThe Loony Left was a pejorative label used in the campaign for the United Kingdom general election, 1987, and subsequently, both by the Conservative Party and by British newspapers that supported the Conservative Party. The label was directed at the policies and actions of some Labour Party...
" variety, during the days of the Greater London CouncilGreater London CouncilThe Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...
. This column was retired when the GLC was abolished. - Sally Deedes – genuine consumer journalism column, exposing corrupt or improper goods, services or dealings. This column was the origin of the magazine's first-ever libel victory in the mid-1990s.
- Illustrated London News – a digest of news and scandal from the city, parodying (and using the masthead of) the defunct gazette of the same name. It was usually written by the radical pioneer journalist Claud CockburnClaud CockburnFrancis Claud Cockburn was a British journalist. He was well known proponent of communism. His saying, "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies.He was the second cousin of novelist Evelyn Waugh....
. - Grovel – a "society" column, featuring gossip, scandal and scuttlebutt about the rich and famous, and probably the section which gave rise to the magazine's largest number of libel claims. Its character and style (accompanied by a drawing of a drunk man with a monocle, top hat and cigarette holder) was based on Nigel DempsterNigel DempsterNigel Richard Patton Dempster was a British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist. Best known for his celebrity gossip columns in newspapers, his work appeared in the Daily Express and Daily Mail and also in Private Eye magazine...
, lampooned as Nigel Pratt-Dumpster. Grovel last appeared in issue 832 (25 Nov 1993). - Hallo! – the "heart-warming column" purportedly written by The Marquesa, was nearly identical to Grovel in content, but with a new prose style parodying the breathless and gushing format established by magazines such as Hello.
- Thomas, The Privatised Tank Engine – a parody of Rev. W. Awdry'sW.V. AwdryWilbert Vere Awdry, OBE , was an English clergyman, railway enthusiast and children's author, better known as the Reverend W. Awdry and creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, who starred in Awdry's acclaimed Railway Series.-Life:Awdry was born at Ampfield vicarage near Romsey, Hampshire in 1911...
Railway SeriesThe Railway SeriesThe Railway Series is a set of story books about a railway system located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first being published in 1945. Twenty-six were written by the Rev. W. Awdry, up to 1972. A further 16 were written by his son, Christopher Awdry; 14...
, written by Incledon Clark and printed at the time of the debate over the privatisation of British RailPrivatisation of British RailThe privatisation of British Rail was set in motion when the Conservative government enacted, on 19 January 1993, the British Coal and British Rail Act 1993 . This enabled the relevant Secretary of State to issue directions to the relevant Board...
in 1993–4. - Wimmin – a regular 1980s section featuring quotes from feminist writing deemed to be ridiculous (similar to Pseuds Corner).
Cartoons
Private Eye is home to many of Britain's most highly regarded humorous cartoonists. As well as many one-off cartoons, the magazine has featured a number of regular comic strips:- Great Bores of Today (defunct) by Michael HeathMichael Heath (cartoonist)Michael John Heath is a prolific British strip cartoonist and illustrator.His father, George Heath, was also a cartoonist...
. - The Regulars (defunct) by Michael HeathMichael Heath (cartoonist)Michael John Heath is a prolific British strip cartoonist and illustrator.His father, George Heath, was also a cartoonist...
- based on the drinking scene at the Coach and Horses pub (a regular meeting place for the magazine's staff and guests), and featuring the catchphrase "Jeff bin in?" (a reference to pub regular, the journalist Jeffrey BernardJeffrey BernardJeffrey Bernard was a British journalist, best known for his weekly column "Low Life" in the Spectator magazine, and also notorious for a feckless and chaotic career and life of alcohol abuse. He became associated with the louche and bohemian atmosphere that existed in London's Soho district...
). - Yobs and Yobettes by Tony Husband - satirising yobYobboYobbo or yob is a slang term for an uncouth or thuggish working-class person. The word derives from a back slang reading of the word "boy" .-Britain:Dr. C. T...
culture. - SupermodelSupermodelThe term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
s by Neil Kerber - satirising their lifestyle; the characters are unfeasibly thin. - The Commuters (defunct) by Grizelda - follows the efforts of two commuters to get a train to work.
- It's Grim Up North London by Knife and PackerKnife and PackerKnife and Packer are Duncan McCoshan and Jem Packer, best known as illustrators/ writers of children's books and cartoonists.McCosham and Packer first began working together in 1993 on various cartoons and cartoon strips for or UK newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian and The Sunday...
- satire about IslingtonIslingtonIslington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
'trendies'. - Young British ArtistsYoung British ArtistsYoung British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
by Birch - a spoof of artists such as Tracey EminTracey EminTracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
and Damien HirstDamien HirstDamien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
. - Off Your Trolley (defunct) by Reeve & Way - set in an NHS hospital.
- Apparently by Mike Barfield - satirising day-to-day life or pop trends.
- The Premiersh*ts by Paul Wood - about the state of professional football and footballers.
- Celeb by Charles PeattieCharles PeattieCharles Peattie is a British cartoonist, best known as half of the team that creates the comic strip Alex. He has two daughters and two sons...
and Mark Warren - a strip about the celebrity rock star Gary Bloke. - Snipcock & Tweed by Nick NewmanNick NewmanNick Newman is a satirical British cartoonist and comedy scriptwriter.The son of an RAF officer, Newman was born in Kuala Lumpur and schooled at Ardingly College where his satirical career began, working on revues with Ian Hislop...
- two book publishers. - The Directors by Dredge & Rigg - comments on the excesses of boardroom fat catsFat cat (term)Fat cat is a political term originally describing a rich political donor, also called an angel or big money man.The New York Times has described fat cats as symbols of "a deeply corrupt campaign finance system riddled with loopholes", with Americans seeing them as recipients of the "perks of...
. - The CloggiesThe CloggiesThe Cloggies, an Everyday Saga in the Life of Clog Dancing Folk, was a long-running cartoon by Bill Tidy that ran in the satirical magazine Private Eye from 1967 to 1981, and later in The Listener from 1985 to 1986. It gently satirised northern British male culture, and introduced a shocked nation...
(defunct) by Bill TidyBill TidyWilliam Edward "Bill" Tidy, MBE , is a British cartoonist, writer and television personality, known chiefly for his comic strips. Bill was awarded an MBE in 2000 for "Services to Journalism". He is noted for his charitable work, particularly for the Lord's Taverners, which he has supported for over...
- clog dancersCloggingClogging is a type of folk dance with roots in traditional European dancing, early African-American dance, and traditional Cherokee dance in which the dancer's footwear is used musically by striking the heel, the toe, or both in unison against a floor or each other to create audible percussive...
. - Hom Sap (defunct) by AustinDavid Austin (cartoonist)David Austin was a British cartoonist. He was best known for his pocket cartoons in The Guardian, which he contributed from 1990 to 2005, and for the strip Hom Sap in Private Eye, which began in 1970...
. - Scenes you seldom see by Barry FantoniBarry FantoniBarry Ernest Fantoni is a writer, comic strip cartoonist and jazz musician of Italian and Jewish descent, most famous for his work with the magazine Private Eye, for whom he also created Neasden F.C. As of 2005 he remains a shareholder in the company that owns Private Eye, Pressdram Limited...
- satirising the habits of British people by portraying the opposite of what is the generally accepted norm. - Battle for BritainBattle for Britain (Private Eye)Battle For Britain was a comic strip cartoon published in the fortnightly satirical magazine Private Eye in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. It depicted Margaret Thatcher's second term of office as Prime Minister but with the politicians shown as British soldiers or Nazi officials in a World...
(defunct) - a satire of British politics (1983–1987) in terms of World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis... - EUphemisms – features a European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
official making a statement, with the caption stating what it means in real terms, generally depicting the EU in a negative light. For example, a French Minister declares "The euroEuroThe euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
is not a failure" with the caption reading "I'm using the word "not" in its loosest possible sense". - Barry McKenzieBarry McKenzieBarry "Bazza" McKenzie is a fictional character originally created by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries for a comic strip, written by Humphries and drawn by New Zealand artist Nicholas Garland, in the British satirical magazine Private Eye.-Background:The Private Eye comic strips were...
(defunct) – popular strip in the mid-1960s detailing the adventures of an expatriate Australian in Earl's Court and elsewhere, written by Barry HumphriesBarry HumphriesJohn Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
and drawn by Nicholas GarlandNicholas GarlandNicholas Withycombe Garland is a political cartoonist for the Daily Telegraph. He had previously drawn for The New Statesman, The Spectator and The Independent....
. - Dave Snooty – drawn in the style of The BeanoThe BeanoThe Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
, it parodies David CameronDavid CameronDavid William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
as "Dave Snooty" (a reference to the Beano character "Lord SnootyLord SnootyLord Snooty was a fictional character in a comic strip in the UK comic The Beano, first appearing in issue 1, dated 30 July 1938, and was the longest running strip in the comic until Dennis the Menace and Gnasher overtook it...
"), involved in public schoolboy-type behaviour with members of his cabinet. - The Broon-ites (defunct) – a pastiche of Scottish cartoon strip The BroonsThe BroonsThe Broons is a comic strip in Scots published in the weekly Scottish newspaper, The Sunday Post. It features the Broon family, who live in a tenement flat at 10 Glebe Street, in the fictional Scottish town of Auchentogle or Auchenshoogle . They are also shown as living on Glebe Street...
, featuring Gordon BrownGordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
and his close associates. The speechbubbles are written in broad ScotsScots languageScots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
. - Global Warming: The Plus Side – a satire of the effects of global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, suggesting mock "positive" impacts of the phenomena, such as bus-sized marrows in village vegetable competitions, vastly decreased fossil prices due to melting permafrost, and the proliferation of British citrus orchards. - Liz (defunct) – a cartoon about the Royal FamilyBritish Royal FamilyThe British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
drawn by Cutter Perkins and RGJ in the style of the comic magazine VizViz (comic)Viz is a popular British comic magazine which has been running since 1979.The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and either sexual or violent storylines...
(with speech in GeordieGeordieGeordie is a regional nickname for a person from the Tyneside region of the north east of England, or the name of the English-language dialect spoken by its inhabitants...
dialect). Ran from issue 801 to issue 833. - Meet the Clintstones – The Prehistoric First Family – drawn in the style of The FlintstonesThe FlintstonesThe Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
, this is a parody of BillBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and Hillary Clinton during his Presidency and the 2008 US presidential electionUnited States presidential election, 2008The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
. - Dan Dire, Pilot of the Future? and Tony Blair, Pilot for the Foreseeable Future (defunct) - parodies of the Dan DareDan DareDan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...
comics of the 1950s, satirising (respectively) Neil KinnockNeil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
's time as Labour Party leader, and Tony BlairTony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's Labour government..
At various times, Private Eye has also used the work of Ralph Steadman
Ralph Steadman
Ralph Steadman is a British cartoonist and caricaturist who is perhaps best known for his work with American author Hunter S. Thompson.-Personal life:Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, and brought up in Towyn, North Wales...
, Wally Fawkes
Wally Fawkes
Wally Fawkes Wally Fawkes Wally Fawkes (born 1924 in Vancouver, Canada (left in 1931 for England) is a British-Canadian jazz clarinetist and, until recently, a satirical cartoonist...
, Timothy Birdsall
Timothy Birdsall
Timothy Birdsall was an English cartoonist.Birdsall appeared on the BBC’s That Was The Week That Was. He was shown behind a glass panel improvising drawings on it with an ink-marker. While at Cambridge, he illustrated Granta. He also contributed to Private Eye, The Spectator, and The Sunday Times...
, Martin Honeysett
Martin Honeysett
Martin Honeysett is a cartoonist and illustrator.After studying at Croydon School of Art, he worked briefly in a London animation studio, and then spent several years abroad both in New Zealand as a lumberjack and in Canada before returning to England to work as a bus-driver for London Transport...
, Willie Rushton
Willie Rushton
William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.- School and army :William George Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in the family home at Scarsdale Villas,...
, Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Anthony Scarfe, CBE, RDI, is an English cartoonist and illustrator. He worked as editorial cartoonist for The Sunday Times and illustrator for The New Yorker...
, Bill Tidy
Bill Tidy
William Edward "Bill" Tidy, MBE , is a British cartoonist, writer and television personality, known chiefly for his comic strips. Bill was awarded an MBE in 2000 for "Services to Journalism". He is noted for his charitable work, particularly for the Lord's Taverners, which he has supported for over...
, Robert Thompson, Ken Pyne, Geoff Thompson, "Jerodo", Ed McLauchlan, "Pearsall", Kevin Woodcock
Kevin Woodcock
Kevin Robert Woodcock was a British cartoonist.Kevin Woodcock was born at Leicester General Hospital...
, Brian Bagnall and Kathryn Lamb.
Frequent targets for parody and satire
While the magazine in general reports corruption, self-interest and incompetence in a broad range of industries and lines of work, in practice certain people and entities receive a particularly large amount of coverage in its pages. As the most visible public figures, Prime Ministers and senior politicians make the most natural targets, but Private Eye also aims its criticism at journalists, newspapers and particularly prominent or interesting businesspeople. It is the habit of the magazine to attach nicknames, usually offensive and often very crude, to these people, and often to create surreal and extensive alternate personifications of them, which usually take the form of parody newspaper articles in the second half of the magazine.Other media and merchandise
Private Eye has from time to time produced various spin-offs from the magazine:- Books, e.g. annuals, cartoon collections and investigative pamphlets
- Audio recordings
- Private Eye TVPrivate Eye TVPrivate Eye TV was an unsuccessful attempt to turn the satirical magazine Private Eye into a television programme.In celebration of the magazine's tenth anniversary, the best of its output was compiled by Barry Took and read out by the magazine's staff and assorted comedy stars such as John Bird,...
, a 1971 BBC TV version of the magazine - Memorabilia and commemorative products
Public offence
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
, Private Eye printed a cover headed "MEDIA TO BLAME". Under this headline was a picture of many hundreds of people outside Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
, with one person commenting that the papers were "a disgrace", another agreeing, saying that it was impossible to get one anywhere, and another saying, "Borrow mine. It's got a picture of the car."
Following the abrupt change in reporting from newspapers immediately following her death, the issue also featured a mock retraction from "all newspapers" of everything negative that they had ever said about Diana. This was enough to cause a flood of complaints, many cancelled subscriptions, and the temporary removal of the magazine from the shelves of several newsagents. These included W H Smith
W H Smith
WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
, which had previously refused to stock Private Eye until well into the 1970s, and was characterised in the magazine as "WH Smugg" or "WH Smut" on account of its policy of stocking pornographic magazines. The Diana issue is now one of the most highly sought-after back issues.
Similar complaints were received about the issues that followed the Ladbroke Grove rail crash
Ladbroke Grove rail crash
The Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash was a rail accident which occurred on 5 October 1999 at Ladbroke Grove, London, England. Thirty-one people were killed and more than 520 injured...
, the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
(the magazine even including a special "subscription cancellation coupon" for disgruntled readers to send in) and the Soham murders
Soham murders
The Soham murders was an English murder case in 2002 of two 10-year-old girls in the village of Soham, Cambridgeshire.The victims were Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman...
. Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
the magazine's cover featured Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
saying to Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
, "We must track down the evil mastermind behind the bombers...", to which Livingstone replies "...and invite him around for tea", in reference to his controversial invitation of Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a controversial Egyptian Islamic theologian. He is best known for his programme, ash-Shariah wal-Hayat , broadcast on Al Jazeera, which has an estimated audience of 60 million worldwide...
to London.
Bigotry
The cover of issue 256 from 1971 showed Emperor HirohitoHirohito
, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...
visiting Britain with the caption "A nasty nip in the air" (subhead: "Piss off, Bandy Knees"). In the 1960s and 1970s the magazine mocked the gay rights movement
LGBT social movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...
as "Poove Power".
Blasphemy
The 2004 Christmas issue received a number of complaints and subscription cancellations after it featured Pieter Bruegel's painting of a nativity sceneNativity scene
A nativity scene, manger scene, krippe, crèche, or crib, is a depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke...
, in which one wise man said to another: "Apparently, it's David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
's" (who at the time was involved in a scandal in which he was thought to have impregnated a married woman). Many readers sent letters accusing the magazine of blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
and anti-Christian attitudes. One stated that the "witless, gutless buggers wouldn't dare mock Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
", an observation later apparently vindicated when the magazine declined to publish the Danish Mohammed cartoons
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
for fear of firebombs (although it does regularly publish Islam-related humour). Many letters in the first issue of 2005 disagreed with the former readers' complaints, and some were parodies of those letters, 'complaining' about the following issue's cover – a cartoon depicting Santa
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
's sleigh shredded to pieces by a wind farm
Wind farm
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
: one said, "To use a picture of Our Lord Father Christmas and his Holy Reindeer being torn limb from limb while flying over a windfarm is inappropriate and blasphemous."
MMR
A 2002 Private Eye special supplement on the MMR vaccine controversyMMR vaccine controversy
The MMR vaccine controversy was a case of scientific misconduct which triggered a health scare. It followed the publication in 1998 of a paper in the medical journal The Lancet which presented apparent evidence that autism spectrum disorders could be caused by the MMR vaccine, an immunization...
was substantially supportive of the interpretation by Andrew Wakefield
Andrew Wakefield
Andrew Wakefield is a British former surgeon and medical researcher, known as an advocate for the discredited claim that there is a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, autism and bowel disease, and for his fraudulent 1998 research paper in support of that claim.Four years after...
of published research in The Lancet
The Lancet
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...
by the Royal Free Hospital
Royal Free Hospital
The Royal Free Hospital is a major teaching hospital in Hampstead, London, England and part of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust....
's Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, which described an apparent link between the vaccine, autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
and bowel problems. Initially dismissive of Wakefield, the magazine's 32-page special edition gave greater credence to Wakefield's assertion that MMR vaccines "should be given individually at not less than one year intervals." The British Medical Journal
BMJ
BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...
issued a contemporary press release that concluded: "The Eye report is dangerous in that it is likely to be read by people who are concerned about the safety of the vaccine. A doubting parent who reads this might be convinced there is a genuine problem and the absence of any proper references will prevent them from checking the many misleading statements." Subsequently, editor Ian Hislop has told the author and columnist Ben Goldacre
Ben Goldacre
Ben Michael Goldacre born 1974 is a British science writer, doctor and psychiatrist. He is the author of The Guardian newspaper's weekly Bad Science column and a book of the same title, published by Fourth Estate in September 2008....
that Private Eye is "not anti-MMR". In a review article published in February 2010, regular columnist Phil Hammond
Phil Hammond (comedian)
Dr Philip Hammond is a general practitioner who has become noted as a comedian and commentator on health issues in the United Kingdom. Hammond was educated at Marlborough Grammar School, St John's Comprehensive, Marlborough, and Marlborough College...
, who contributes under the pseudonym "M.D.", stated that "Private Eye got it wrong in its coverage of MMR", in maintaining its support for Wakefield's position long after conflicting factors had emerged.
Litigation
The magazine has long been famous for attracting libel lawsuits, which can lead to damages relatively easily in English law. To ensure a level of safety, the magazine maintains a large quantity of money as a "fighting fund" (although the magazine invariably finds other ways to defuse legal tensions, for example by printing letters from aggrieved parties). As editor, Ian HislopIan Hislop
Ian David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
has become the most sued man in Britain. From 1969 to the mid-1980s, the magazine was represented by human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman
Geoffrey Bindman
Professor Sir Geoffrey Lionel Bindman QC is a British solicitor specialising in human rights law, and founder of the human rights law firm Bindmans LLP, described by The Times as "never far from the headlines." He has been Chair of the British Institute of Human Rights since 2005...
.
Those who have sued the magazine include many famous names, although the editor has noted that while politicians are a prime target, they "tend to take their medicine like men"; the largest number of lawsuits issue from journalists. For the tenth anniversary issue, the cover showed a cartoon headstone inscribed with a long list of well-known names, and the epitaph "They did not sue in vain".
An unlikely piece of British legal history occurred in what is now referred to as the "case" of Arkell v. Pressdram (1971). The plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
was the subject of an article relating to illicit payments, and the magazine had ample evidence to back up the article. Arkell's lawyers wrote a letter which concluded: "His attitude to damages
Damages
In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...
will be governed by the nature of your reply." The magazine's response was, in full: "We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr J. Arkell. We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off." In the years following, the magazine would refer to this exchange as a euphemism for a blunt and coarse dismissal: for example, "We refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram". As with "tired and emotional
Tired and emotional
The phrase tired and emotional is a chiefly British euphemism for drunk. It was popularised by the British satirical magazine Private Eye in 1967 after being used in a spoof diplomatic memo to describe the state of Labour Cabinet minister George Brown, but is now used as a stock phrase...
" this usage has spread beyond the magazine.
Possibly the most famous litigation case against the magazine was initiated by James Goldsmith
James Goldsmith
Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...
(known within Private Eyes pages as '(Sir) Jammy Fishpaste'), who managed to arrange for criminal libel
Criminal libel
Criminal libel is a legal term, of English origin, which may be used with one of two distinct meanings, in those common law jurisdictions where it is still used....
charges to be brought (effectively meaning that, if found guilty, those behind the Eye could be imprisoned). He sued over allegations that members of the Clermont Set
Clermont Set
The Clermont Set was an exclusive group of rich British gamblers who met at the Clermont Club at 44 Berkeley Square, in London's fashionable Mayfair district now located at 27-28 Curzon Street and called Aspinall's. It was the first London casino opened by John Aspinall after he won the gaming...
, including Goldsmith, had conspired to shelter Lord Lucan
Richard Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan
Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan , popularly known as Lord Lucan, as Lord Bingham before 1964, and sometimes colloquially called "Lucky" Lucan, was a British peer, who disappeared in the early hours of 8 November 1974, following the murder of Sandra Rivett, his children's nanny, the previous...
after Lucan had murdered his family nanny, Sandra Rivett. Goldsmith won a partial victory and eventually reached a settlement with the magazine. The case threatened to bankrupt the magazine, which turned to its readers for financial support in the form of the Goldenballs Fund. Goldsmith himself was referred to as Jaws. The solicitor involved in many litigation cases against Private Eye, including the Goldsmith case, was Peter Carter-Ruck
Peter Carter-Ruck
Peter Frederick Carter-Ruck was an English lawyer, specialising in libel cases. The firm he founded, Carter-Ruck, is still practising.-Personal life:...
(or "Carter-Fuck", as the Eye referred to him).
Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...
(known as Captain Bob) sued the magazine for the suggestion he looked like a criminal, and won a significant sum. The editor, Ian Hislop, summarised the case: "I've just given a fat cheque to a fat Czech" and later claimed this was the only known example of a joke being told on News At Ten
News at Ten
The ITV News at Ten is the flagship news programme on British television network ITV, produced by ITN and founded by news editor Geoffrey Cox in 1967. It was originally planned as a thirteen week project in July 1967 because senior figures at ITV refused to believe that a permanent 30-minute late...
. Sonia Sutcliffe also sued after allegations that she used her connection to her husband, the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe
Peter Sutcliffe
Peter William Sutcliffe is a British serial killer who was dubbed "The Yorkshire Ripper". In 1981 Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attacking seven others. He is currently serving 20 sentences of life imprisonment in Broadmoor Hospital...
, to make money. She won £600,000 which was later reduced to £60,000 on appeal. However, the initial award caused Hislop to quip outside the court: "If this is justice, I'm a banana." Readers raised a considerable sum in the "bananaballs fund", and Private Eye scored a PR coup by donating the surplus to the families of Sutcliffe's victims.
A rare victory for the magazine came in late 2001, when a libel case brought against the magazine by a Cornish
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
chartered accountant
Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional body, initially established in Britain in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants , the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants were each granted a royal charter almost from...
, Stuart Condliffe, finally came to trial after ten years. The case was thrown out after only a few weeks as Condliffe had effectively accused his own legal team (Carter-Ruck and Associates) of lying.
In 2009 Private Eye successfully challenged an injunction brought against it by Michael Napier, former head of the Law Society
Law Society of England and Wales
The Law Society is the professional association that represents the solicitors' profession in England and Wales. It provides services and support to practising and training solicitors as well as serving as a sounding board for law reform. Members of the Society are often consulted when important...
, who had sought to claim "confidentiality" for a report that he had been disciplined by the Law Society in relation to a conflict of interest. The ruling had wider significance in that it allowed other rulings by the Law Society to be publicised.
Paul Foot Award
In 2005, The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and Private Eye established the Paul Foot Award
Paul Foot Award
The Paul Foot Award is an award given for investigative or campaigning journalism, set up by The Guardian and Private Eye in memory of the journalist Paul Foot, who died in 2004....
, with an annual £10,000 prize fund, for investigative/campaigning journalism.
Ownership
The magazine is apparently owned by an eclectic group of people, officially published through the mechanism of a limited company called Pressdram Ltd,C/O MORLEY AND SCOTTLYNTON HOUSE
7–12 TAVISTOCK SQUARE
LONDON WC1H 9LT
Company No. 00708923
Date of Incorporation: 24 November 1961}} which was bought as an "off the shelf" company by Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
in November 1961.
Private Eye does not publish explicit details of individuals concerned with its upkeep (and does not contain a list of its editors, writers and designers). In 1981 the book The Private Eye Story stated that the owners were Peter Cook (who owned most of the shareholding) with smaller shareholders including Dirk Bogarde
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...
, Jane Asher
Jane Asher
Jane Asher is an English actress. She has also developed a second career as a cake decorator and cake shop proprietor.-Early life:...
, and several of those involved with the founding of the magazine. Most of those on the list have since died, however, and it is unclear what happened to their shareholdings. Those concerned are reputedly contractually only to be able to sell their shareholdings at the price they originally paid for them.
Shareholders as of the annual return dated 26 March 2005, including shareholders who have inherited shares, are:
- Jane AsherJane AsherJane Asher is an English actress. She has also developed a second career as a cake decorator and cake shop proprietor.-Early life:...
- Barbara Braden
- David Cash (also a director)
- Elizabeth Cook
- Lin Cook
- Barry FantoniBarry FantoniBarry Ernest Fantoni is a writer, comic strip cartoonist and jazz musician of Italian and Jewish descent, most famous for his work with the magazine Private Eye, for whom he also created Neasden F.C. As of 2005 he remains a shareholder in the company that owns Private Eye, Pressdram Limited...
- Tessa Fantoni
- Ian HislopIan HislopIan David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
(also a director) - Eileen Lewenstein
- Executor of Lord Farington
- Peter CookPeter CookPeter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
(Productions) Ltd - Private Eye (Productions) Ltd
- Anthony Rushton (also a director)
- Connor Hammil
- Sarah Seymour
- Thomas Usbourne
- Brock van der Bogaerde
The other directors are Sheila Molnar, who is also the company secretary, and Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
.
Logo
The logo for the magazine's News section is a donkey-riding naked Mr PunchPunch and Judy
Punch and Judy is a traditional, popular puppet show featuring the characters of Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Punch and one other character...
caressing his erect and oversized penis, while hugging a female admirer. It is a detail from a frieze by "Dickie" Doyle
Richard Doyle (illustrator)
Richard "Dickie" Doyle was a notable illustrator of the Victorian era. His work frequently appeared, amongst other places, in Punch magazine; he drew the cover of the first issue, and designed the magazine's masthead, a design that was used for over a century.Born at 17 Cambridge Terrace, London,...
that once formed the masthead of Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
magazine, which the editors of Private Eye had come to loathe for its perceived descent into complacency. The image, hidden away in the detail of the frieze, had appeared on the cover of Punch for nearly a century and was noticed by Malcolm Muggeridge
Malcolm Muggeridge
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist. During World War II, he was a soldier and a spy...
during a guest-editing spot on Private Eye. The 'Rabelaisian gnome' (as the character was called) was enlarged by Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Anthony Scarfe, CBE, RDI, is an English cartoonist and illustrator. He worked as editorial cartoonist for The Sunday Times and illustrator for The New Yorker...
, and put on the front cover of issue 69 at full size. He was then formally adopted as a mascot on the inside pages, as a symbol of the old, radical incarnation of Punch magazine that the Eye admired.
Rally
On May Day 1965, the magazine held a "Mass for Vass" rally in Central London for beleaguered former British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-HomeAlec Douglas-Home
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, KT, PC , known as The Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963 and as Sir Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1974, was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964.He is the last...
, a reference to his nickname "Baillie Vass". Under police supervision, 300 marchers carried banners proclaiming "High-Speed Vass Gets Things Done", "The Baillie Will No Fail Ye", "Hands off the Rann of Kutch!" and "Who's a Cretin?" (a reference to a former nickname, "Sir Alec Douglas-Who?"). The march progressed from Parliament Square
Parliament Square
Parliament Square is a square outside the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west. It contains statues of famous statesmen and is the scene of rallies and protests, as well as being a tourist...
to Conservative Central Office
Conservative Campaign Headquarters
Conservative Campaign Headquarters , formerly known as Conservative Central Office is the headquarters of the British Conservative Party, housing its central staff and committee members....
, where, accompanied by a brass band, the participants sang rousing songs in mock support of Home to the occupants of the building. This incident went almost entirely unreported in the national media.
See also
- The Chaser (newspaper)The Chaser (newspaper)The Chaser was a newspaper, published in Australia by political satire group The Chaser from 1999 to 2005.The newspaper, first published on 9 May 1999, was The Chaser team's most famous enterprise. Among other things, they have published Australian Prime Minister John Howard's private, unlisted...
(Australia) - FrankFrank (magazine)Frank is a bi-weekly Canadian scandal or satirical magazine published since 1987 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.A separate publication in Ottawa, Ontario, of the same name was published from 1989 to 2004 and then revived from 2005 to 2008...
(Canada) - The ClinicThe ClinicThe Clinic is a Chilean satirical/investigative newspaper founded by Patricio Fernández Chadwick in November 1998. The name was inspired by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's October 1998 arrest in Britain at The London Clinic, which bears the name The Clinic on its façade...
(Chile) - Le Canard enchaînéLe Canard enchaînéLe Canard enchaîné is a satirical newspaper published weekly in France. Founded in 1915, it features investigative journalism and leaks from sources inside the French government, the French political world and the French business world, as well as many jokes and humorous cartoons.-Early...
(France) - TitanicTitanic (magazine)Titanic is a German monthly satirical magazine based in Frankfurt. It has a circulation of approximately 100,000.- History :Titanic was founded in 1979 by former contributors and editors of Pardon, a satirical monthly, which the group had left after conflicts with its publisher...
(Germany) - Faking NewsFaking NewsFaking News is an Indian news satire website that publishes fake news reports containing satire on politics and society of India. The website also publishes occasional serious articles related to television journalism in India...
(India) - The PhoenixThe Phoenix (magazine)The Phoenix is Ireland's best selling political and current affairs magazine. Inspired by the British magazine Private Eye, and a source of investigative journalism in Ireland...
(Ireland) - De Speld (The Netherlands)
- Academia CatavencuAcademia CatavencuAcademia Caţavencu is a Romanian satirical magazine founded in 1991 and made famous by its investigative journalism. Academia Caţavencu also owns Radio Guerrilla , an FM radio station with national coverage ; Tabu, a women's magazine, Superbebe, a magazine for new parents, Aventuri la pescuit, a...
(Romania) - Moskovskaya KomsomolkaMoskovskaya KomsomolkaMoskovskaya Komsomolka was a satirical newspaper published weekly in Russia . The newspaper had a fixed 32 page layout.-Presentation:...
(Russia) - NoseweekNoseweekNoseweek is a South African investigative magazine published by Chaucer Publications that has appeared monthly since June 1993. It is best known for regular legal action against it, such as a failed bid at interdiction by banking group FirstRand and defamation actions by judge Fikile Bam and...
, (South Africa) - El JuevesEl Juevesis a Spanish satirical weekly magazine published in Barcelona. Its complete title is ""...
, (Spain) - Grönköpings VeckobladGrönköpings VeckobladGrönköpings Veckoblad is a Swedish satirical monthly magazine. The name translates as "The Grönköping Weekly", Grönköping being a fictional Swedish town. Founded in 1902 by Hasse Zetterström as a supplement to Söndags-Nisse, it became an independent magazine in 1916...
(Sweden) - Zaytung (Turkey)
- The Daily MashThe Daily MashThe Daily Mash is a British satirical website providing parodic commentary on current affairs and other news stories. Neil Rafferty and Paul Stokes , created the website in 2007 and remain the lead writers...
(UK) - Guernsey Futu (UK)
- Teacher's DiaryTeacher's diaryOver the course of two weeks in April 2004, the British satirical magazine Private Eye published a journal, Teacher's Diary, written by an anonymous maths teacher at what he called "a bog standard comprehensive".The diary described an undercurrent of pupil misbehaviour and incompetence in the...
(UK, a brief Private Eye spin-off) - The OnionThe OnionThe Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
, (US) - The ReporterThe ReporterThe Reporter is the local newspaper based in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and owned by Gannett. It serves primarily Fond du Lac and northern Dodge County in East Central Wisconsin....
(US) - SpySpy (magazine)Spy was a satirical monthly magazine founded in 1986 by Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter, who served as its first editors, and Thomas L. Phillips, Jr., its first publisher. After one folding and a rebirth, it ceased publication in 1998...
, a defunct US counterpart - Weekly World NewsWeekly World NewsThe Weekly World News was a supermarket tabloid published in the United States from 1979 to 2007, renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news that verged on the satirical. Its characteristic black-and-white covers have become...
(US) - The Lemon PressThe Lemon PressThe Lemon Press is a satirical magazine at the University of York. It is written by and for students, and currently has over 50 working members. The first issue of the publication was launched in 2009 at the University of York Students’ Union Freshers' Fair...
, a Yorkshire counterpart - Vigousse, an extremely faithful Swiss-French counterpart, but a little more savage.