Andrew Neil | |
|---|---|
 Neil in 2016 | |
| Born | Andrew Ferguson Neil (1949-05-21)21 May 1949 (age 76) Paisley,Renfrewshire, Scotland |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow (MA) |
| Occupations |
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| Notable credits |
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| Spouse | |
| Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews | |
| In office November 1999 – October 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Donald Findlay |
| Succeeded by | Sir Clement Freud |
Andrew Ferguson NeilFRSA (born 21 May 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster. He has presented various political programmes on theBBC and onChannel 4. Born inPaisley,Renfrewshire, Neil attendedPaisley Grammar School, before studying at theUniversity of Glasgow. He entered journalism in 1973 as a correspondent forThe Economist.
Neil was appointed editor ofThe Sunday Times byRupert Murdoch in 1983, and held this position until 1994. After that, he became a contributor to theDaily Mail. He was chief executive and editor-in-chief ofPress Holdings Media Group. In 1988, he became founding chairman ofSky TV, also part of Murdoch'sNews Corporation. He worked for the BBC for 25 years until 2020, fronting various programmes, includingSunday Politics andThis Week onBBC One andDaily Politics,Politics Live andThe Andrew Neil Show onBBC Two. From 2008 until 2024[1] he was the chairman of Press Holdings, whose titles includeThe Spectator, andITP Media Group. Following his departure from the BBC, he became founding chairman ofGB News and a presenter on the channel, but resigned in September 2021. He later joined Channel 4 in 2022 as presenter ofThe Andrew Neil Show, which shared the same name as his former BBC Two programme. In June 2024 he additionally began hosting a daily broadcast forTimes Radio providing political analysis, commentary, interviews and debates.[2][3]
Neil was born on 21 May 1949[4] inPaisley, Renfrewshire, to Mary and James Neil.[5] His mother worked in cotton mills duringWorld War II and his father ran the wartime Cairo fire brigade, worked as an electrician and was a major in theTerritorial Army in Renfrewshire.[6][7][8] He grew up in theGlenburn area and attended the local Langcraigs Primary School. At 11, Neil passed the qualifying examination and obtained entrance to the selectivePaisley Grammar School.[9]
After school, Neil attended theUniversity of Glasgow,[10] where he edited the student newspaper, theGlasgow University Guardian, and dabbled in student television. He was a member of theDialectic Society and theConservative Club, and participated inGlasgow University Union inter-varsity debates. In 1971, he was chairman of theFederation of Conservative Students. He graduated in 1971, with anMA with honours in political economy and political science.[10][11] He had been tutored byVince Cable and had a focus onAmerican history.[12][13]
After his graduation, Neil briefly worked as a sports correspondent for a local newspaper, thePaisley Daily Express, before working for theConservative Party. In 1973, he joinedThe Economist as a correspondent and was later promoted as editor of the publication's section on Britain.
Neil was editor ofThe Sunday Times from 1983 to 1994. His hiring was controversial: it was argued he was appointed byRupert Murdoch over more experienced colleagues, such asHugo Young andBrian MacArthur.[14]
Neil told Murdoch before he was appointed editor thatThe Sunday Times was intellectually stuck in a 1960s time warp and that it needed to "shake off itscollectivist mind-set to become the champion of a market-led revolution that would shake the BritishEstablishment to its bones and transform the economy and society".[15] Neil later said that although he shared some of Murdoch's right-wing views, "on many matters Rupert was well to the right of me politically. He was amonetarist. I was not. Nor did I share hisconservative social outlook".[15]
In his first editorial, on 9 October 1983, Neil advisedMargaret Thatcher's government to "move to the right on industrial policy (trust-bust, deregulate, privatise wherever it produces more competition and efficiency) and centre-left in economic strategy (a few billion extra in capital spending would have little impact on interest rates or inflation but could give a lift to a shaky economic recovery)".[16]
The Sunday Times strongly supported the stationing of Americancruise missiles in bases in Britain after the Soviet Union installedSS-20s in Eastern Europe, and it criticised the resurgentCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[17] Neil also wrote editorials supporting theUnited States invasion of Grenada because it would restore democracy there, despite opposition from Hugo Young. Neil replied to Young that he wanted the editorial stance ofThe Sunday Times to be "neo-Keynesian in economic policy, radical right in industrial policy, liberal on social matters and European andAtlanticist on foreign policy".[18]
In Neil's first year as the paper's editor,The Sunday Times had revealed the date of the deployment of cruise missiles, exposed howMark Thatcher had channelled the gains from his consultancy business into a bank account and reported onRobert Mugabe's atrocities inMatabeleland.[19] Neil also printed extracts fromGermaine Greer'sSex and Destiny and fromFrancis Pym's anti-Thatcher autobiography, as well as a study of the "Patels of Britain", a celebration of the success ofBritain's Asian community.[20]
Neil regards the newspaper's revelation of details ofIsrael's nuclear weapons programme in 1986, by using photographs and testimony from former Israeli nuclear technicianMordechai Vanunu, as his greatest scoop as an editor.[21] During his editorship, the newspaper lost a libel case over claims that it had made concerning a witness,Carmen Proetta, who was interviewed after her appearance in theDeath on the Rock documentary on theGibraltar shootings. One ofThe Sunday Times journalists involved, Rosie Waterhouse, resigned not long afterwards.[22][23]
On 20 July 1986,The Sunday Times printed a front-page article (titled 'Queen dismayed by "uncaring" Thatcher') alleging that the Queen believed thatMargaret Thatcher's policies were "uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive".[24][25][26] The main source of information was the Queen's press secretary,Michael Shea.[27] When Buckingham Palace issued a statement rebutting the story, Neil was so angry at what he considered to be the Palace's double-dealing that he refused to print the statement in later editions ofThe Sunday Times.[27]
In 1987, the Labour-controlledStrathclyde Regional Authority wanted to close down Neil's old school, Paisley Grammar School. After finding the secretary of state for Scotland,Malcolm Rifkind, indifferent to the school's future, Neil contacted Margaret Thatcher's policy adviser,Brian Griffiths, to try and save the school. When Griffiths informed Thatcher of Strathclyde's plan to close it she issued a new regulation that gave the Scottish secretary the power to save schools where 80 per cent of the parents were opposed to the local authority's closure plan, thereby saving Paisley Grammar.[28][29]
While atThe Sunday Times in 1988, Neil met the formerMiss India,Pamella Bordes, in a nightclub, an inappropriate place for someone with Neil's job according toPeregrine Worsthorne.[30] TheNews of the World suggested Bordes was acall girl.[31] Worsthorne argued in an editorial article "Playboys as Editors" in March 1989 forThe Sunday Telegraph that Neil was not fit to edit a serious Sunday newspaper. Worsthorne effectively accused Neil of knowing that Bordes was a prostitute.[32] He apparently did not know about Bordes,[31] which theTelegraph had accepted by the time the libel case came toHigh Court of Justice in January 1990,[30] but the paper still defended their coverage asfair comment.[33] Neil won both the case and £1,000 in damages[34] plus costs.
In a July 1988 editorial ("Morals for the majority") Neil said that in Britain there were emerging pockets of social decay and unsocial behaviour: "a social rot ... has gone deeper than the industrial decay of the 1960s and 1970s".[35] Having been impressed withCharles Murray's study of the American welfare state,Losing Ground, Neil invited Murray to Britain in 1989 to study Britain's emergingunderclass.[36]The Sunday Times Magazine of 26 November 1989 was largely devoted to Murray's report, which found that the British underclass consisted of people existing on welfare, theblack economy and crime, with illegitimacy being the single most reliable predictor.[37] The accompanying editorial said Britain was in the midst of a "social tragedy of Dickensian proportions", with an underclass "characterized by drugs, casual violence, petty crime, illegitimate children, homelessness, work avoidance and contempt for conventional values".[38]
Under Neil's editorship,The Sunday Times opposed thepoll tax.[39] In his memoirs, Neil said that his opposition to the poll tax crystallised when he discovered that his cleaner would be paying more poll tax than himself at a time when his income tax had just been reduced to 40% from 60%.[40][41] During the1990 Conservative Party leadership election,The Sunday Times was the only Murdoch-owned newspaper to supportMichael Heseltine against Thatcher.[42] Neil blamed Thatcher for high inflation, "misplaced chauvinism" over Europe, and the poll tax, concluding that she had become an "electoral liability" and must therefore be replaced by Heseltine.[42][43]
In an editorial of January 1988 ("Modernize the monarchy"), Neil advocated the abolition of both the preference for males in the law of succession and of the exclusion of Catholics from the throne.[44] Subsequent editorials ofThe Sunday Times called for the Queen to pay income tax and advocated a scaled-down monarchy that would not be class-based but which would be "an institution with close links to all classes. That meant clearing out the old-school courtiers ... and creating a court which was far more representative of the multi-racial meritocracy that Britain was becoming".[45] In an editorial of February 1991 Neil criticised some minor members of the Royal Family for their behaviour while the country was at war in theGulf.[46] In 1992 Neil obtained forThe Sunday Times the serialisation rights forAndrew Morton's bookDiana: Her True Story, which revealed the breakdown ofPrincess Diana's marriage as well as her bulimia and her suicide attempts.[47]
In 1992 Neil was criticised by anti-Nazi groups[48] and historians includingHugh Trevor-Roper[49] for employing theHolocaust denierDavid Irving to translate the diaries ofJoseph Goebbels.[48]
According to Neil, he was replaced asSunday Times editor in 1994 because Murdoch had become envious of his celebrity.[34][50] Many years later, in November 2017, former Conservative cabinet ministerKenneth Clarke said Neil had been removed because Neil's article about corruption in the Malaysian government ofMahathir Mohamad conflicted with Murdoch's desire to acquire a television franchise in the country. The Malaysian prime minister at the time told Clarke on a ministerial visit that he had achieved Neil's sacking after a telephone conversation with Murdoch.[51] The conflict between Neil and Mahathir did become public knowledge at the time.[52][53] The British minister of state for tradeRichard Needham criticised Neil and the newspaper for potentially putting thousands of jobs at risk.[54]
Neil's departure from his role asSunday Times editor was officially reported in 1994 as being merely temporary, as he was to present and edit a current affairs programme forFox in New York.[55] "During my time, theSunday Times has been at the centre of every major controversy in Britain", he said at the time. "These are the kind of journalistic values I want to reproduce at Fox".[56] Neil's new television programme did not make it to air. A pilot produced in September had a mixed internal response, and Murdoch cancelled the entire project in late October. Neil did not return to his job asSunday Times editor.[57]
Neil became a contributor to theDaily Mail. In 1996, he became editor-in-chief of theBarclay brothers'Press Holdings group of newspapers, owner ofThe Scotsman,Sunday Business (later justThe Business) andThe European. Press Holdings soldThe Scotsman in December 2005, ending Neil's relationship with the newspaper. Neil has not enjoyed great success with the circulations of the newspapers (indeedThe European folded shortly after he took over).The Business closed down in February 2008. He exchanged his role as chief executive of Press Holdings for chairman in July 2008.[58][10] He is chairman of the Press Holdings titleThe Spectator.[59][60] In January 2024, Neil told BBC Newsnight that he would quit his role as chairman ofThe Spectator if a UAE-US consortium is successful in its proposed takeover of the magazine and its sister publicationthe Daily Telegraph.[61] In September 2024, following the acquisition ofThe Spectator byPaul Marshall, he resigned as chairman.[1]
Since 2006 Neil has been chair of theDubai-based publishing companyITP Media Group.[62][63]
In June 2008, Neil led a consortium which bought talent agency Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (PFD) from CSS Stellar plc for £4 million, making him chairman of the new company in addition to his other activities.[64] Neil served as Lord Rector of theUniversity of St Andrews from 1999 to 2002.
As well as Neil's newspaper activities he has maintained a television career. While he worked forThe Economist, he provided news reports to American networks.
His regular interview series forChannel 4,Is This Your Life? (made byOpen Media), was nominated for aBAFTA award for "Best Talk Show".[65] In the course of the series Neil interviewed a wide variety of personalities, fromAlbert Reynolds andMorris Cerullo toJimmy Savile andMax Clifford.[66] He acted as a television newsreader in two films:Dirty Weekend (1993) andParting Shots (1999), both directed byMichael Winner.
In 1988 he became founding chairman ofSky TV, also part of Murdoch'sNews Corporation. Neil was instrumental in the company's launch, overseeing the transformation of a downmarket, single-channel satellite service into a four-channel network in less than a year. Neil and Murdoch stood side by side at Sky's new headquarters inIsleworth on 5 February 1989 to witness the launch of the service. Sky was not an instant success; the uncertainty caused by the competition provided byBritish Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) and the initial shortage of satellite dishes were early problems.
The failure of BSB in November 1990 led to a merger, but a few programmes acquired by BSB were screened onSky One and BSB's satellites were sold. The new company was calledBritish Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). The merger may have saved Sky financially; despite its popularity, Sky had very few major advertisers to begin with, and it was beginning to suffer from embarrassing breakdowns. Acquiring BSB's healthier advertising contracts and equipment apparently solved the problems. BSkyB would not make a profit for a decade but by July 2010, it was one of the most profitable television companies in Europe.[citation needed]
AtThe Sunday Times, he contributed to BBC, both radio and television. He commented on the various controversies provoked by the paper while he was editor. During the 1990s, Neil fronted political programmes for the BBC, includingDespatch Box onBBC Two.
Following the revamp of the BBC's political programming in early 2003, Neil presented the live political programmes,This Week onBBC One andDaily Politics on BBC Two. The latter ended in 2018 and was replaced byPolitics Live, which Neil presented until he left the corporation.
From 2007 to 2010, he presented the weekly one-on-one political interview programmeStraight Talk with Andrew Neil on theBBC News channel. He also presentedSunday Politics on BBC One between 2012 and 2017 and occasionally guest presentedNewsnight on BBC Two following hostJeremy Paxman's departure in 2014.[10]
During the BBC's general election night coverage in2010, Neil interviewed various celebrities on theRiver Thames. In the2015 election, Neil interviewed political figures in the BBC studio. He also provided commentary on foreign elections, and withKatty Kay led the BBC's overnight live coverage of theUS presidential election in 2016.[67][68] In the run-up to the2017 general election he interviewed five of the political party leaders on BBC One inThe Andrew Neil Interviews.[69]
Neil earned £200,000 to £249,999 as a BBC presenter in the financial year 2016–17.[70]
In May 2019, Neil interviewedBen Shapiro, an American conservative commentator, onPolitics Live on BBC Two.[71][72][73] Shapiro was promoting his new book,The Right Side of History, which discussesJudeo-Christian values and asserts their decline in the United States.[74] Shapiro took offence to the questioning, accused Neil of having a left-leaning bias, and said Neil was trying to make a "quick buck... off of the fact that I'm popular and no one has ever heard of you", before Shapiro ended the interview.[75] Shapiro later apologised for the incident.[74][76]
During the2019 Conservative Party leadership election, Neil interviewed candidatesJeremy Hunt andBoris Johnson, inThe Andrew Neil Interviews. Director of BBC NewsFran Unsworth hailed it as "a masterclass of political interviewing".[77]
In August 2019, the BBC announced that Neil would host a prime-time political programme that would run through autumn 2019 on BBC Two, calledThe Andrew Neil Show. The show included "in-depth analysis and forensic questioning of key political players".[78] It was suspended due to theCOVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and then cancelled as the BBC went through with budget cuts.[79]
On 24 September 2019, Neil presented a live programme on BBC One entitledBBC News Special: Politics in Crisis, addressing theSupreme Courtjudgement which deemed Boris Johnson's prorogation of parliament unlawful.[80] In the run-up to the2019 general election, Neil interviewed all the leaders of the main political parties, excluding Johnson, having delivered a monologue inThe Andrew Neil Interviews issuing him a challenge to participate.[81]
On 15 July 2020 the BBC announced that Neil was in talks about an interview show on BBC One.[79] The next month he was discussed in the media asSir David Clementi's possible successor aschairman of the BBC;[82][83] he later said he had no interest in the role.[84] TheDirector-General of the BBC,Tim Davie, on his second day in the role, held talks with Neil "in an attempt to get him back to the BBC" and it was reported that he was also in discussions with executives from commercial rivals.[85]
Neil's final appearance for the BBC was when he presented coverage of the2020 US presidential election, again with Katty Kay.[86][87]
On 25 September 2020, Neil announced his exit from the BBC to become chairman ofGB News, a news channel launched on 13 June 2021.[86] As well as being chairman, he presentedAndrew Neil, aprime time evening programme on the channel.[88][89] Two weeks after the channel's launch, after having hosted eight episodes of his show, he announced he would be taking a break.[90][91][89] He spent months in his hiatus involved in legal disputes with GB News over ending his contract. However, Neil and the channel publicly maintained that he was taking a holiday,[89] and he was expected to rejoin the channel in early September. As that time approached, multiple news sources reported that his return had been postponed, with some speculating that this postponement might become indefinite.[92][93] It was further reported that he was "highly unlikely" to return to the channel.[93]
On 13 September 2021, Neil resigned from GB News as chairman and lead presenter and announced he would enter a new role as a guest contributor.[94][95] Later that month, on the BBC'sQuestion Time, he said that he had left his roles at GB News over the direction the channel was taking, and that he had become a "minority of one" within senior management. It was reported that these remarks had angered GB News bosses and that Neil would not be appearing on GB News again.[89] On 22 September, Neil said he would not return to GB News.[96]
Neil later described his decision to lead the channel as the "single biggest mistake" of his career, comparing the channel toFox News.[97]
In January 2022, it was reported that Neil was in talks withChannel 4 about presenting a weekly politics show to be launched later in 2022.[98] On 30 January, Channel 4 aired a documentary,Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road?, in which Neil explored the future ofBoris Johnson's premiership followingrepeated allegations of parties held in Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown.[99] On 21 February, Channel 4 announced he would host a show beginning in May, which would also be accompanied by a weekly podcast.[100]The Andrew Neil Show launched with an interview with cabinet ministerJacob Rees-Mogg, and Neil was also joined by journalistsPippa Crerar and Madeline Grant.[101]
Since May 2024, Andrew Neil hosts a daily-scheduled lunchtime show onTimes Radio, from 1pm to 2pm, in which he provides commentaries and in-depth analysis on current domestic and international affairs, joined byTimes journalists, other press columnists or political guests.[102]
Neil was a vocal and enthusiastic proponent ofBritish military involvement in Afghanistan. Neil derided those who opposed the war as "wimps with no will to fight", while labellingThe Guardian asThe Daily Terrorist and theNew Statesman as theNew Taliban for publishing dissenting opinions about the wisdom of British military involvement.[103][104] For questioning whether "Bush and Blair are leading us deeper and deeper into a quagmire", Neil ridiculedDaily Mail columnistStephen Glover, calling him "woolly, wimpy" and "juvenile".[103] He comparedTony Blair toWinston Churchill andOsama bin Laden toAdolf Hitler, while describing theUnited States invasion of Afghanistan as a "calibrated response" and a "patient, precise and successful deployment of US military power".[103][105]
Neil was an early advocate of the2003 invasion of Iraq, describing the case for war and regime change advanced byTony Blair andGeorge W. Bush as "convincing" and "masterful".[105] In 2002, Neil wrote that Iraq had "embarked on a worldwide shopping spree to buy the technology and material needed to construct weapons of mass destruction – and the missile systems needed to deliver them across great distances", and that "the suburbs of Baghdad are now dotted with secret installations, often posing as hospitals or schools, developing missile fuel, bodies and guidance systems, chemical and biological warheads and, most sinister of all, a renewed attempt to develop nuclear weapons."[105] He wrote thatSaddam Hussein would provideAl-Qaeda withweapons of mass destruction, and that Saddam had links to theSeptember 11 attacks.[105][106]
Neil has been accused of rejecting thescientific consensus on climate change and was criticised for frequently inviting non-scientists andclimate change deniers to deny climate change on his BBC programmes.[107][108][109][110] In 2011,Bob Ward of theGrantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at theLondon School of Economics, wrote inThe Guardian that Neil let inaccurate and misleading statements about climate change go unchallenged on his BBC programmeDaily Politics.[107]
In November 2020, Neil said that climate change was real and needed to be confronted. He criticised protests byExtinction Rebellion onRemembrance Day, stating: "I've interviewed Extinction Rebellion on several occasions and most of what they say is total nonsense or total exaggeration."[111]
During Neil's time as editor,The Sunday Times backed a campaign to falsely claim thatHIV was not a cause ofAIDS.[34][112][113][114] In 1990,The Sunday Times serialised a book by an American right-winger who rejected the scientific consensus on the causes of AIDS, and who falsely claimed that AIDS could not spread to heterosexuals.[113] Articles and editorials inThe Sunday Times cast doubt on the scientific consensus, described HIV as a "politically correct virus" about which there was a "conspiracy of silence," disputed that AIDS was spreading in Africa, claimed that tests for HIV were invalid, described the HIV/AIDS treatment drugazidothymidine (AZT) as harmful, and characterised theWorld Health Organization (WHO) as an "Empire-building AIDS [organisation]."[113]
Thepseudoscientific coverage of HIV/AIDS inThe Sunday Times led the scientific journalNature to monitor the newspaper's coverage and to publish letters rebutting the falsehoods printed inThe Sunday Times.[113] In response to this,The Sunday Times published an article headlined "AIDS – why we won't be silenced", which said thatNature engaged in censorship and "sinister intent".[113] In his 1996 book,Full Disclosure, Neil wrote that hisHIV/AIDS denialism "deserved publication to encourage debate."[113] That same year, he wrote thatThe Sunday Times had been vindicated in its coverage, "The Sunday Times was one of a handful of newspapers, perhaps the most prominent, which argued that heterosexual Aids was a myth. The figures are now in and this newspaper stands totally vindicated... The history of Aids is one of the great scandals of our time. I do not blame doctors and the Aids lobby for warning that everybody might be at risk in the early days, when ignorance was rife and reliable evidence scant." He criticised the "AIDS establishment" and said "Aids had become an industry, a job-creation scheme for the caring classes."[115]
In a 2021 interview Neil said that he regretted certain aspects of the paper's coverage of HIV and AIDS, but he was unwilling or unable to accept any personal responsibility for the falsehoods published while he was editor. Neil chose instead to blame an employee, stating that he had placed faith in a trusted correspondent who was found to be wrong.[116]
In January 1997,ITV broadcast a live television debateMonarchy: The Nation Decides, in which Neil spoke in favour ofestablishing a republic.[117] When asked in 2021 by the BBC if he was still a republican, he changed his mind, saying "Not really."[118]
The British satirical and investigative journalism magazinePrivate Eye has referred to Neil by the nickname "Brillo" after his wiry hair, which is seen as bearing a resemblance to aBrillo Pad, a brand ofscouring pad.[119]
In along-running joke, a photograph of Neil wearing a vest and baseball cap in an embrace with a much younger woman (often mistaken forPamella Bordes, a formerMiss India, but really an African American make-up artist with whom Neil was once involved)[6] appeared regularly in the letters page of the magazine for some years, and is still used occasionally. Typically, a reader will ask the editor if he has any photographs relevant to some topical news item, frequently with a veiled allusion to the age-gap between two individuals, or to ethnic diversity. Bydouble entendre, the letter can be construed as a request for this photo, which is duly published alongside.[120] Neil claims to find it "fascinating" and an example of "public school racism" on the part of the magazine's editorial staff.[6]
Neil lives inGrasse in the south of France and also has homes inChelsea, London andMidtown Manhattan, New York City, an apartment within theTrump World Tower.[121][122][123][124] Neil married Susan Nilsson, a Swedish communications director, on 8 August 2015.[125][126]
Neil has threatened to sue American businesswomanJennifer Arcuri over claims she made on Twitter linking Neil to the billionaire and child sex abuserJeffrey Epstein, as well as other Twitter users who retweeted or endorsed her now-deleted tweet.[127] Neil denies ever meeting Epstein and argues he was put in his infamous "black book" byGhislaine Maxwell, Epstein's procurer.[128]
After watchingGomorrah, Neil developed an interest inItalian rap music, calling it "the best rap music there is."[129]
| Location | Date | School | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
 Scotland | 1998 | Napier University | Doctor of Letters (DLitt)[130] |
| Scotland | 20 November 2001 | University of Paisley | Doctor of the University (DUniv)[131] |
| Scotland | 29 November 2002 | University of St Andrews | Doctor of Laws (LLD)[132] |
| Scotland | 13 June 2018 | University of Glasgow | Doctor of the University (DUniv)[133][134] |
| Country | Date | Organisation | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
 United Kingdom | Royal Society of Arts | Fellow (FRSA)[135] |
| Media offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Editor ofThe Sunday Times 1983–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Charles Garside | Editor ofThe European 1996–1998 | Succeeded by |
| New title | Chairman ofGB News 2021 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Rector of the University of St Andrews 1999–2002 | Succeeded by |
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