TRIBUTES have been paid to journalist and broadcaster Simon Hoggart who has died aged 67.
Hoggart, who spent the majority of his career at TheGuardian, including a lengthy stint as its parliamentary sketchwriter, died yesterday. The Guardian, which announced his death yesterday, said he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several years ago.
As well as his countless witty dispatches from parliament and party conferences, Hoggart was the author of dozens of books.
He also spent five years working for TheGuardian in northern ireland and a report he wrote about the behaviour of the Parachute Regiment a week before Bloody Sunday featured in the Saville inquiry. Headlined "the Brutal Soldiery", it claimed other soldiers had urged brigade headquarters to keep the regiment out of their areas. Hoggart later gave evidence to the inquiry about his experiences. The British army denounced the article at the time but the truth of it was confirmed in the 2010 Saville report into the events of January 30 1972 in derry.
Hoggart was a regular broadcaster, chairing the News Quiz on BBc's Radio 4 for a decade.
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said he wrote with "mischief and a sometimes acid eye about the theatre of politics".
He said: "A daily reading of his sketch told you things about the workings of Westminster which no news story could ever convey."