Ian Hislop is OK

I was facinated by David Keen's comments on Ian Hislop. In the Beaker Common Room, the Private Eye is the only allowable reading material. Apart from the Bible of course. And the Book of the Dead. And the Road Less Travelled. And the Hitch-hiker's Guide trilogy. But still - it has the great advantage over all these that it can be re-used when past its sell by date, and offered for sale as authentic Beaker toilet paper.

We like Ian Hislop. Because he doesn't just laugh at people. He does it with moral purpose. There's real indignation in the humour. The Eye can be misguided, cruel, public-school and silly and sometimes plain wrong. But when you consider some of the people who've sued it over the years, you've got to reckon they've done a lot of things right. I've not bothered to look up Ian Hislop's birthday, so we're lighting a tea light for him and 50 years of the Eye right now.