My Political Hero: Ian Hislop

The defining moment that transformed someone I merely admired into my political hero came on an episode of Have I Got News for You in 2011. The debate was about the Occupy movement, who were at the time residing outside St. Pauls Cathedral in London protesting economic inequality and corporate greed. Louise Mensch, chick-lit author and Thatcherite extraordinaire was holding forth on how the views of the protesters were worthless, if you considered their partiality for iPhones, coffee from Starbucks and relatively nice tents, to the staggered indication of the other panellists. “It’s just so obvious I can’t be bothered” laughed Ian Hislop. “You don’t have to want to return to a barter system in the stone-age to complain about the way the financial crisis affected large numbers of people in the world, even if you’re having a cup of coffee and you’ve got a tent!” Pure, incisive, brilliance. I was hooked.

From that moment on I became a Hislop disciple, subscribing to Private Eye and revelling in its fortnightly cutting satire with the same joy as if I were the one uncovering the stories of grubby backhanders and salacious deals made during off-the-record lunches. An Oxford graduate, Hislop is one of the ‘good ole Oxbridge lot’, managing to shake off the elitism and privilege that abounded at the time to pursue a career in laughter and the exposure of corruption for the public good.

His appointment as the editor of Private Eye was controversial to say the least, hired by the then editor Richard Ingrams straight out of university he became editor in 1986 following Ingrams departure, to the horror of Eye journalists Peter McKay and Nigel Dempster. Considering Hislop a young upstart, they attempted a revolt, with McKay taking out the majority shareholder, Peter Cook, to a boozy lunch in an effort to dissuade him from appointing Hislop. This backfired spectacularly as Cook announced that he was “welcome aboard”, and Hislop subsequently sacked both adversaries upon becoming editor.

Since that contentious beginning, he has been hailed as the most sued man in English legal history, due to the many extensive libel cases brought against the publication. When you think that he has only won two out of the myriad of lawsuits brought to the Eye, his determination to continue to uncover and print allegations about the most powerful and corrupt is superbly kamikaze.

Apart from his role as chief satirist, he has also deeply impressed me with his consistent political independence; critical of all the major parties for the last twenty years, he favours rationality over political rigmarole and has praised and demeaned each parties policies as he sees fit. Never in all his appearances as team captain on Have I Got News for You (every episode since 1990), has he ever laid down the gauntlet for a specific party or belief, allowing him to rip into each guest politician without being encumbered by a sense of loyalty. It’s wonderful to see someone be so political, but not politically-affiliated.