Recurring In-jokes in Private Eye - Names Intentionally Misspelled or Misstated

Names Intentionally Misspelled or Misstated

• Prime Minister Harold Wilson was always named as "Wislon", a name also later applied to AN Wilson.
• The late Sir James Goldsmith, a frequent and vindictive litigant, was usually "Sir Jammy Fishpaste" and other similar names, such as "St. Jammy Fishfingers". The magazine considers some aspect of his activities to be objectionable.
• Capita, a long-term favourite target of Private Eye, is frequently called "Crapita" and "the world's worst outsourcing firm".
• The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is usually called the "Department for the Elimination/Eradication of Farming and Rural Affairs"; its acronym DEFRA is usually spelt DEFRO (Death Row), and its former long-term minister Margaret Beckett is still called Rosa Klebb after the character in the James Bond film From Russia With Love. Its forerunner, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), was referred to as the "Maffia".
• First Group is usually known as "Worst Group".
• The Serious Fraud Office is often the Serious Farce Office.
• The Department of Trade and Industry was often the "Department of Timidity and Inaction".
• The Department for Transport (DfT) is usually referred as "DafT".
• The defunct Financial Services Authority, invariably referred to as "The Fundamentally Supine Authority" in reference to its reluctance to act and its seemingly close relationship with the industry it is supposed to regulate, often contrasting its performance with the swift and draconian methods of its United States counterparts.
• The Carter-Ruck law firm, a specialist in libel cases, is almost always referred to as Carter-Fuck (and once, in response to a complaint from the firm, as Farter-Fuck)
• Piers Morgan is referred to as Piers Moron, sometimes Piers "Morgan" Moron.
• The city of Brighton and Hove is often referred to as "Skidrow-on-Sea" in the "Rotten Boroughs" column.
• The Daily Telegraph newspaper is usually referred to as the "Torygraph" because of its political leaning towards the Conservative Party.
• The Independent is frequently called "The Indescribablyboring".
• The Guardian newspaper is generally referred to as "the grauniad", in reference to the paper's reputation for typographical errors and mistakes and its lower-case masthead logo.
• The Daily Express newspaper has been lampooned as the Daily Getsworse.
• The Sunday Times is called "The Sunset Times".
• The Evening Standard is called "The Evening Boris" for its support of the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
• "The Maily Telegraph" is a composite of The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail. Similarly, "The Stun" is a generic red top tabloid newspaper, like "The Sun" and "The Daily Star".
• From 1964 until his death, Sir Alec Douglas-Home was referred to as Baillie Vass, after his photograph was mistakenly captioned as such in the Aberdeen Evening Express.
• Queen Elizabeth II is regularly referred to as "Brenda"; and Charles, Prince of Wales as "Brian".
• Richard Branson is regularly referred to as "Beardie".