Occupation Journalist Name Hugo Rifkind | Role Journalist Siblings Caroline Rifkind | |
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Born 1977 (age 37–38) Edinburgh, Scotland Family Malcolm Rifkind (father)
Edith Rifkind (mother) Parents Malcolm Rifkind, Edith Rifkind Education Emmanuel College, Cambridge, George Watson's College, Loretto School People also search for Malcolm Rifkind, Edith Rifkind, Caroline Rifkind Books My Week, Overexposure, My Week*: *Accordin Profiles | ||
OPERATION PEE ON HUGO
Hugo Rifkind (born 1977) is a Scottish journalist who is a columnist for The Times.
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Early life and education
Hugo Rifkind was born 1977 in Edinburgh, the son of Conservative Party politician, Malcolm Rifkind and his wife Edith.
Rifkind was educated at the independent Loretto School in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, the only Jewish pupil at the time. He also attended George Watson's College in Edinburgh before reading philosophy at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Journalism career
Rifkind began his career in journalism as an editorial assistant for the show business website Peoplenews.com, before becoming a freelance writer for The Times and the Evening Standard, and a columnist for the Glasgow Herald from 2002 to 2005. He joined The Times in 2005, taking over the gossip column ("People") from Andrew Pierce.
In The Times, Rifkind writes a Tuesday opinion column, and a satirical diary ("My Week") in the style of a public figure in the news, and a television review column, both on Saturdays. From 2007 - 2017 he wrote a fortnightly column for the Spectator, striking a liberal, pro-European tone which went notably against the magazine's conservative, Eurosceptic editorial line. Frequently his columns expressed concern about anthropogenic global warming, about which the Spectator and the bulk of its writers are also traditionally sceptical.
He also writes a monthly column for GQ. Additionally, he has appeared on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC London and BBC Radio 4's satirical quiz show The News Quiz. Throughout the general election of 2015, he presented Campaign Sidebar, a Saturday morning political review show on BBC Radio 4. His debut novel, Overexposure a satirical farce set in the London media world, was published in 2007. A compendium of his columns, My Week: The Secret Diaries Of Almost Everyone, was published in 2013.
Rifkind was named Columnist of the Year in the 2011 Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, and Media Commentator of the Year in the same awards in 2012. He was highly commended in the Best of Humour category at the Society of Editors' Press Awards in 2012. He was Stonewall's Journalist of the Year in 2012, in recognition of his strong support for equal marriage. The same year, he was also named Best Grooming Journalist in the P&G Beauty Awards. In 2015, at the Comment Awards, he was named Arts, Culture and Entertainment Commentator of The Year.
In 2011, in a column in The Times, Rifkind admitted that he had inserted fictitious information in Wikipedia's article about Queen Victoria and at least two journalists had used the material in published stories.
In August 2014, Rifkind was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.