Simon Heffer

Heffer was born in Chelmsford and was educated there at King Edward VI Grammar School before going to read English at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MA), later receiving a PhD in History.[1]

Heffer admitted in 2012 that he wrote the first draft of a Spectator editorial regarding the death of Kenneth Bigley,[12] which said in part:

The extreme reaction to Mr Bigley's murder is fed by the fact that he was a Liverpudlian. Liverpool is a handsome city with a tribal sense of community. ... An excessive predilection for welfarism have created a peculiar, and deeply unattractive, psyche among many Liverpudlians. They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it. ... They cannot accept that they might have made any contribution to their misfortunes, but seek rather to blame someone else for it, thereby deepening their sense of shared tribal grievance against the rest of society. The deaths of more than 50 Liverpool football supporters at Hillsborough in 1989 was undeniably a greater tragedy than the single death, however horrible, of Mr Bigley; but that is no excuse for Liverpool's failure to acknowledge, even to this day, the part played in the disaster by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground that Saturday afternoon. The police became a convenient scapegoat, and The Sun newspaper a whipping-boy for daring, albeit in a tasteless fashion, to hint at the wider causes of the incident.[13]

These comments (sometimes incorrectly attributed to the then-editor of the Spectator, Boris Johnson) were widely circulated following the April 2016 verdict by the Hillsborough inquest's second hearing proving unlawful killing of the 96 dead at Hillsborough,[14] although Johnson apologised at the time of the publication, saying "That was a lie that unfortunately and very, very regrettably got picked up in a leader in the Spectator in 2004, which I was then editing."[15] Nevertheless, Johnson approved the piece for publication.

Heffer was politically left-wing in his teenage years, but had abandoned his views by the time he went to university, although he admits he still has a lingering respect and affection for several past figures of the left, such as Michael Foot and Tony Benn. When Benn's wife, Caroline, died in November 2000, Heffer wrote a tribute to Benn in the Daily Mail.[16] He now is very critical of both the European Union and New Labour.

Heffer is a social and constitutional conservative. He supported the retention of Section 28, opposed the equalisation of the age of consent and the liberalisation of laws on abortion and divorce.[17] He opposed the removal of hereditary peers from the House of Lords in 1999,[18] and has also written about the decline of tie-wearing among British men. In August 2002, Heffer blamed "liberal society" for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. On 8 February 2006, he was guest-of-honour at the Traditional Britain Group's Annual Dinner at Simpsons-in-the-Strand.[19]

Heffer believes that Christianity should have a strong role in shaping both the moral foundation of society and public policy, but he is personally an atheist.[20]

In July 1995, Heffer threatened to resign from the Daily Mail if it supported John Major in the Conservative Party leadership contest. Heffer backed the candidacy of John Redwood, who was favoured by many of the party's right-wing members of parliament, though he preferred Michael Portillo to be party leader. He has joined calls from fellow journalist Peter Hitchens for the party to be defeated or abolished.

In 2008, Heffer called for the United Nations to be strengthened: "If the UN ceases to be regarded by the larger powers as an institution to secure the peace of the world and justice therein, then that holds out all sorts of potential dangers."[21] On 27 May 2009, Heffer threatened to stand as an independent against Sir Alan Haselhurst,[22] his local Conservative MP and a deputy speaker, unless Haselhurst paid back the £12,000 he claimed for work on his garden, as revealed in the Parliamentary expenses scandal.[23] He was critical of Boris Johnson in 2016,[12] and in 2010 had criticised the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, and modernising elements within the Conservative Party.[24][25]

Heffer has written sympathetically about and backed the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and Nigel Farage.[26] He supported the UK's withdrawal from the EU in the Brexit referendum. In an article in the Daily Telegraph, Heffer suggested that some of those who supported Britain remaining in the European Union were members of the Bilderberg Group and attendees of the World Economic Forum at Davos.[27] Since 2016, he has formed part of the political advisory board of Leave Means Leave.[28]

• Heffer, Simon, & Charles Moore (editors), A Tory Seer: The Selected Journalism of T.E. Utley, London, 1989, ISBN 0-241-12728-9
• Heffer, Simon, Moral Desperado: A Life of Thomas Carlyle, London, 1995.
• Heffer, Simon, Power and Place: The Political Consequences of King Edward VII, London, 1998.
• Heffer, Simon, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell, London, 1998. ISBN 0-297-84286-2
• Heffer, Simon, Nor Shall My Sword: The Reinvention of England, London, 1999.
• Heffer, Simon, Vaughan Williams, London, 2000. ISBN 0-297-64398-3
• Heffer, Simon: Strictly English: The correct way to write... and why it matters, London : Rh Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84794-630-0
• Heffer, Simon (2013). High minds : the Victorians and the birth of modern Britain. London: RH Books.
• Heffer, Simon, Simply English, London : RH Books, 2014.
• Heffer, Simon (2017) The Age of Decadence: Britain 1880 to 1914, Random House, London ISBN 978-1-84794-742-0

• List of newspaper columnists

• www.macmillandictionaryblog.com