Obituary | No-nonsense times two

Bernard Ingham and Betty Boothroyd ensured democracy worked as it should

Margaret Thatcher’s chief press officer died on February 24th, aged 90; the first female Speaker on February 26th, aged 93

Sir Bernard Ingham with former Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd, at the reception to mark the launch of his book 'The wages of spin', at his publishers in Central London. — Image: Alamy

Mar 2nd 2023

The county of Yorkshire, in northern England, is not only God’s own, as most residents think. It is also home to a breed of folk who judge themselves tougher, blunter, more hard-working and more bloody-minded than the average Briton, and often this is true. Bernard Ingham and Betty Boothroyd, both natives of the industrial West Riding, might have come from Yorkshire central casting: she glamorous and loud, once described as a cross between a diva, a headmistress and a barmaid; he resembling the permanently narked referee of a small-town football match, with only his huge eyebrows to keep him from the nithering rain.

This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “No-nonsense times two”