Page "Bernard Ingham" Paragraph 8

In those days, Downing Street briefings were " off the record ", meaning that information given out by Ingham could be attributed only to " senior government sources.

" Occasionally he used this deniability to brief against the government's own ministers, such as when he described the leader of the House of Commons John Biffen as a " semi-detached " member of the government.

Biffen was dropped at the next reshuffle.

This blurring of the distinction between his nominally neutral role as a civil servant and a more partisan role as apologist and promoter of Margaret Thatcher's policies led the late Christopher Hitchens to characterise Ingham as " a nugatory individual " and to criticise what he saw as the negative consequences of Ingham's time as Thatchers press secretary: " During his time in office, Fleet Street took several steps towards an American system of Presidentially-managed coverage and sound-bite deference, without acquiring any of the American constitutional protection in return.