The fiftieth anniversary issue of Private Eye has just landed through my letter-box, prompting me to reflect on this venerable - and valuable - institution. Having been a regular reader more or less throughout its history, and a subscriber for the past forty years or more, I feel I am as in as good a position as anyone to do so. ~ Eye to Eye ~ Fifty years after its launch, Private Eye is not, of course, what it was, which may be just as well. A magazine of its kind could ill afford to become ossified, and even as I applied words like "venerable" and "institution" to it in the preceding paragraph, I did so with a slight ...  Read the complete review

I've been a regular reader of 'Private Eye' magazine for over seven years now, and have seen numerous price hikes over that time. However, at £1.20 for each fortnightly issue, 'Private Eye' still provides probably the most laughs per pound of any magazine, or indeed newspaper, on news shelves anywhere in the country. Founded in the early 1960s, kept alive by funds from Peter Cook (of Pete and Dud fame) and Richard Ingrams, and still carrying with it something of the air of that time, 'Private Eye' is undoubtedly the journalistic home of contemporary British satire. This doesn't always mean that its contents are always funny, in fact, some .  Read the complete review

Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical magazine that costs £1.50. It was founded in 1961 and is currently edited by Ian Hislop who is better known to many as one of the long standing (sitting) team captains on TV's BBC2 satirical panel show "Have I Got News For You". One of the main aspirations and functions of Private Eye is to poke fun at and criticize the political and ruling establishment as well as to uncover what it feels are any dishonest, corrupt or wrong doings by it or by individual business people or large corporations. It does this in a satirical way which can take the form of direct accusations or by using cleverly ...  Read the complete review

Due to current events, personally I don't think that there can be any other time in its 47 year history when Private Eye was more relevant. However, if you have a particular fondness for a political party, can't bear to hear the establishment badmouthed, or generally think the 'powers that be,' can do no wrong - then this magazine isn't for you - it wouldn't take long before you were muttering 'doom-mongers,' and 'conspiracy theorists,' to yourself! Private Eye is satire ... at its very best, and like all good satire it has one foot firmly founded in fact, but for some such truths are too uncomfortable to bear. Also, it must be noted that it does ...  Read the complete review

I have a been a long-time devotee of the esteemed organ that is Private Eye, not just for the sheer depth of satirical amusement that lurks copiously and nonchalantly under its cover, but also for the wonderful manner in which it takes the current affairs of the present day and manages to present them in such a manner that the salient points are distilled and explained in order to eradicate, or at least lessen the ‘spin’. The magazine is almost the brakes on the wheels of the political and social comfortable elite, frequently turning those wheels and the car that it represents into a nice, satisfying skid. Particularly satisfying when that happens to be Lord .  Read the complete review