Biography

During the late 1980s, whilst he was Editor of "The Sunday Times", his old school, Paisley Grammar, was threatened with closure by local government. His political acquaintance with Margaret Thatcher (then the British Prime Minister) led to her direct intervention in the matter - a controversial circumstance, given that the political climate in Scotland at that time was largely anti-Conservative. The school remains open to this day.

Divides his time between homes in London, Scotland, America and the South of France.

Whenever the satirical magazine "Private Eye" mentions Andrew Neil, it almost always deliberately misprints his surname as "Neill", because, the magazine has admitted, it is known to annoy him.

He has covered every Labour leadership election since James Callaghan in 1976.

Told Peter Hitchens, of all people, that his English was unclear.

Freedom of expression is always the first casualty when politicians are on a witch-hunt against the press.

So much of American media now is people shouting at each other.

[on Christians who suggested floods were caused by homosexual marriage] If gay people could change the weather, wouldn't that make them God's anointed people?

[to a UKIP Member of the European Parliament] Are you a political party or are you a Whitehall farce?

David Cameron has called on the BBC to stop using the term Islamic State, claiming that the group is neither Islamic nor a state. But how does he know? The prime minister's not a theologian or an expert on Islamic thought or text. Can you really isolate the group from its religious roots?