name | Andrew Ferguson Neil |
---|---|
birth date | May 21, 1949 |
birth place | Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, United Kingdom |
occupation | BBC journalist, author and television presenter |
website | }} |
He currently works for the BBC, presenting the live political programmes The Daily Politics and This Week. For the BBC he also anchors Straight Talk with Andrew Neil and makes documentaries.
He is also Chairman of Spectator Magazines; Chairman of ITP Magazines (Dubai); and Chairman of World Media Rights (London).
Neil made his name at The Sunday Times where he was editor for 11 years. In 1995 he was made editor-in-chief of the Press Holdings group of newspapers, owner of The Business and (from 2005) The Spectator, moving up to become chairman in July 2008.
After school, Neil went up to the University of Glasgow, to read Economics and Political Science, graduating with the degree of MA.
During his student years, he edited the student newspaper, the Glasgow University Guardian. He was also a member of the Dialectic Society and the Conservative Club and participated in Glasgow University Union inter-varsity debates. He graduated in 1971 with an MA with honours in political economy and political science, having been tutored by Vince Cable.
After graduation he briefly worked as sports correspondent for the local newspaper the Paisley Daily Express before working for the Conservative Party as a research assistant and then joined The Economist as a correspondent in 1973, and was later promoted to being the editor of the publication's section on Britain.
A passionate follower of cricket, Neil is a member of Marylebone Cricket Club.
Opposition to perceived public school and Oxbridge attitudes was a hallmark of Neil's Sunday Times editorship. During his editorship, the newspaper lost a libel case over claims it had made concerning a witness interviewed in the Death on the Rock documentary on the Gibraltar shootings.
While at The Sunday Times in 1988, Neil met the former Miss India, Pamella Bordes, in a nightclub. The News of the World suggested she was an up-market prostitute. Sir Peregrine Worsthorne argued, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, that Neil was not fit to edit a serious Sunday newspaper, on the grounds that "playboys" should not be editors. In a subsequent libel case, Neil sued Worsthorne and won £1,000 plus costs.
The Sunday Times during this period promoted a fringe and later discredited argument that, in Africa, AIDS was a quite separate condition from HIV. In 1992 Neil was criticised by Anti-Nazi groups and historian Hugh Trevor-Roper among others for employing, as a translator of the diaries of Joseph Goebbels, the Holocaust denier David Irving.
The failure of BSB in November 1990 led to a merger, although few programmes acquired by BSB were screened on Sky One, and BSB's satellites were sold. The new company was called British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). The merger may have saved Sky financially; despite its popularity, Sky had very few major advertisers to begin with, and was also beginning to suffer from embarrassing breakdowns. Acquiring BSB's healthier advertising contracts and equipment apparently solved these problems. BSkyB would not make a profit for a decade but is now one of the most profitable and successful television companies in Europe.
In June 2008, Neil led a consortium which bought talent agency Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (PFD) from CSS Stellar plc for £4 million. Neil will be chairman of the new company in addition to his other activities. Neil served as Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews from 1999 - 2002.
In November 2004 it was announced that Neil was to become Chief Executive of The Spectator.
After being overlooked to present the BBC's flagship news programme Newsnight, Neil has presented This Week with ex-Conservative minister Michael Portillo, and Labour MP for Hackney Diane Abbott. Neil also presents the weekly one-on-one political interview programme Straight Talk with Andrew Neil on the BBC News Channel.
The magazine nicknamed him Brillo, after his wiry hair which is seen as bearing a resemblance to a form of kitchen scouring pad. In addition, it often misspells his surname with an extra L, in reference to Neil's relationship with Pamella Bordes, whose name is written with two Ls.
Category:1949 births Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists Category:Living people Category:Newspaper publishers (people) Category:People educated at Paisley Grammar School Category:People from Paisley Category:Press Holdings Category:Rectors of the University of St Andrews Category:Scottish chief executives Category:Scottish journalists Category:Scottish magazine editors Category:Scottish newspaper editors Category:Scottish political pundits Category:Scottish television presenters Category:The Sunday Times people
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