Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

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My feeling is: Yes, somewhat. But Regular Readers will recall that I am a curmudgeon who doesn't like New Things. So do they really want to agree with me here? Plus, we do have (somewhere round here) a house Guardian expert whose opinion would be interesting.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Some readers might, conceivably, like to know that the Guardian (formerly Manchester Guardian) is a UK daily newspaper which has for several decades been the main print source / gathering-point, as it were, for those on 'The Liberal Left'. Many UK ILE posters, I imagine, know it very well and have done for many years, so I thought there might be some opinions around.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

I like the Guardian now more than I have for years. Perhaps the restyle of the mag helped, but generally the Burchill thing works for me and I haven't noticed a drop in quality elsewhere. The Guide has always been shite (and I say that working for PA Listings) but the rest seems cool. Can you specify what's gone wrong for you?

― chris, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

I hate the Guardian - particularly the G2 section, with it's crappy 'think' pieces, terrible arts reviews and smug phillistinism - and have bought it every weekday and Saturdays for at least the last fifteen years. Because, being a bleeding heart liberal and a news junkie, I couldn't bring myself to read any of the other rags (morning papers are somehow part of my going to work coping ritual.) I flirted with the Independent for a while - and the IOS still has the great film critic David Thomson writing for 'em - but I found it to be even more boring than the Guardian. I suspect that I am far from alone in all this, and that the Guardian survives on the unearned good will of the liberal middle classes.

Funnily enough, I quite like the Guide, partly because Joe Queenan and Byron Coley sometimes write for it, partly because it means I no longer have to buy that useless piece of toss Time Out anymore.

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

I've never actually bought a copy of the Guardian, if I did buy a newspaper I'd get the Telegraph, it has a good weather section, obituaries, world news briefs and I like the sports section.

― james e l, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

I suppose the short answer is 'Trivialization'. One has to be a tad careful using a word like that, because, for instance,

1. The simplification of the accusation may just echo what it asserts about the target (just as 'Dumbing Down' is a dumb, dull phrase);

2. If I don't like Triviality, why don't I read nothing but 10-page reports from the former Yugoslavia? It would be hypocritical of me to say that I simply wanted them to be SERIOUS and SOLEMN and RESPONSIBLE all the time. No, that's not it.

What I mean, I suppose, is that too many features, esp. in G2, now look dashed-off - half-hearted, half-baked, unconvincing, just cliché pies really. Today's Lara Croft piece was just the latest of a million examples. It feels (the terms are problematic here, I know) JOURNALISTIC in a bad way - trite, unconsidered, full of crowd- pleasing Received Ideas - rather than JOURNALISTIC in a good way (that is: dogged, resourceful, brave, mentally agile, snappy and what have you).

It's the world of second-hand Lifestyle phrases that bugs me. The way that adults can still write a phrase like "*that* dress" and not hang their heads in shame.

A rider to all my bile, though, is that my previous, more impressed impressions of the Guardian may just reflect youthful impressionability. (Sentence!) Maybe the same kind of crap used to impress me that now feels rubbishy, faux-zeitgeisty and embarrassing? Maybe, but I suspect it's a bit of both.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Andrew L: I know what you mean - the Labour party factor of Nowhere Else To Go? (And brand loyalty, or whatever you want to call it.) There's actually a Verso book out (yet?) which makes a massive attack on the Guardian as home of neo-conservative (ie New Labour) ideas. I find this rather unconvincing and overstated. Even offensive, come to think of it.

I agree about Queenan too. But most of all, I agree about Thomson. There's almost no point having a thread about Thomson, because people who know what they think about him already know it all and would just send in superlatives.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Andrew L, and indeed everyone: cut em loose and let em drown in their own smug laziness!! I stopped buying it a YEAR ago FOREVER and now buy NO NEWSPAPER and am FREE. (Actually I too buy saturday for the guide — and for the food page in the mag, but the mag redesign is utter shit, and the recipes are in fact on long recycle: eg I have seen Lady Llandower's Duck three times now, always copied (of course) from Elizabeth David Salt, Spices and Aromatics...) The age of the newspaper is dead.

― mark s, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Something has clearly gone wrong with G2: the other week they ran a page-long feature on the phenomenon of "Jumping the shark" (referring to that moment when a long-running tv fave finally loses the plot completely, apparently derived from a late episode of Happy Days where Fonzie, yes, jumped a shark). This was all well and good (except it was inane and ripped off from a website [this is a whole other can of worms]), but they ran an almost IDENTICAL story in the Guide not two weeks previously. Do they not read their own paper, or did they simply think the readers wouldn't notice?

What the paper still has going for it: George Monbiot's column, the Diary, Steve Bell, giving review space to Ians Sansom and Penman, and the tv columns of Nancy Banks-Smith. (When N B-S finally pops her clogs I will have to think very hard about buying the paper.)

What is leading the paper ever closer to the abyss: consistently terrible pop coverage (honorable exceptions: Maddy Costa, Betty Clarke); the fatuous new Saturday mag (Zoe Ball on dressing? match the celebrity with the pet? that awful woman talking about words that should be banned??); Charlotte bloody Raven.

― stevie t, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

What I mean, I suppose, is that too many features, esp. in G2, now look dashed-off - half-hearted, half-baked, unconvincing, just cliché pies really. (Pinefox)

I agree with you there. They sucker you in with the G2 front cover (and the masthead of the main paper), but when you get to read the cover story it often appears cobbled together and lightweight. I imagine it must be difficult to fill that space with high quality stories day in day out though.

― David, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Stevie: agree about Steve Bell, of course. I mean, if only for the sake of 1981 and all that. But actually, he draws and paints better now.

I actually like Peter Preston's awkward, staccato opinion pieces, come to think of it. But not the pompous ones of Hugo Young. Freedland is sometimes good at summing political issues up, but usually he 'sums up' too much - there's too much glibness in the way he marshals it all. (I admit again, though, that it's easy - even glib - to call someone glib.)

Penman strikes me as a red herring. I can see that he doesn't do that to you, cos you have some kind of investment in his career. I agree about Sansom (great left-back, mean penalty, blah blah) - in fact I think that the whole Saturday book reviews section is quite possibly the best feature of the paper. EXCEPT of course the footy. Heroes? How could I forget David Lacey?

BUT I think that you are wrong about N B-S. It doesn't surprise me that older folk make that judgement about her; it does rather surprise me coming from you. She has skills, I guess, but she's terribly repetitive; uses the same lines on the same topics year in year out. It's all too - yes - glib and easy, while dressed up to look aged and thus wise.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

I agree with much of what's been said. After Mark Steel and Jeremy Hardy went, it didn't seem as essential anymore. The Observer's the same - just dear old Phil Hogan that still makes me go down the shops Sunday morning

― jamesmichaelward, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

My parents used to get a subscription to the Guardian shipped to them for the first few years they were in the States, because they couldn't trust the US Media. The Guardian just isn't the same when it's not printed on that semi-transluscent airmail paper.

I only read it for the Guide and the job listings. Not that either has been particularly helpful lately... ;-)

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Steve Bell is a GOD but apart from that I read it largely out of having nowhere else to go and a worry that I'll become totally detached from the world if I don't read any newspapers at all. I think it might have marginally improved with the loss of Messrs. Hardy and Steel though. Everything they wrote was just as predictable and smug as any of the other writers mentioned above, only with a more left wing stance.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

I don't read anything except the Spectator. Hey Chris, if you work for PA Listings then that means you're in the same building as me.

― tarden, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

The Guide last week (or was it the week before) had that BRILLIANT article slamming not just the Strokes, but the entire music hype industry... VERY funny because it was so clearly written by an insider who had been participating in the music hype game for so long.

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

I'd love to comment, but those Observer commissions are keeping me out of the poor house. Anything appearing in the Guardian or the Obs by my deepest and dearest friends is obviously genius...

― Mark Morris, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

As bad as the Guardian may have become, it's still better than the so-called "best" American newspapers. Or, if you think it couldn't get worse, it could end up becoming The New York Times or The Washington Post.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Reynard's right about the amount of trivial toss that gets in there. Mark's also right about the decline of the newspaper in general. Reynard's spot on re. New Labour - the Guardian's frequent criticism of some Blairite attitudes is one of the great things about it.

There's a lot of irritating stuff, yes. My favourite columnist is George Monbiot, by a mile. Something I like about the Independent when I do get it is that its liberalism is less metropolitan and more about the common good. Needless to say, though, the Guardian's series of articles on public service under that very title were awesome.

― The Hemulen Who Loved Silence, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

OK, agree with the Hemulen re. The Common Good.

Today's G2 seems designed to add fuel to my (f)ire: one page of 'Style' after another, including a column on Why We're So Disappointed That Madonna Employs A Stylist.

― the pinefox, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Although Toynbee's piece on Labour post-election is admirable.

― blue veils and golden sands, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Broadly I agree with her, yes. It feels a wee bit ironic given her immediately-pre-election pieces telling everyone how urgent it was to overcome apathy and vote for the people she's now criticizing. (But actually I think she was right both times.)

Also good in Guardian: John Patterson re. cinema.

― the pinefox, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

six years pass...

oh god, ask hadley today is just... tooth-grinding.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:17 (ten years ago) Permalink

"today"

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:17 (ten years ago) Permalink

"At what age is a man too old to wear band T-shirts?"

Martin McCall, by email

"About 15 - that young enough for you, Martin? And to follow one rhetorical question with several more, what in God's name is the point of band T-shirts anyway? To show your allegiance to a band? Do you think anyone else cares? To impress onlookers with your esoteric musical knowledge? See previous reply. To make people stare at your bony chest? Again, I refer you to the first answer. To show that you once attended a live gig? Wow, like, a pair of golden headsets to the guy in the Nirvana '91 T-shirt. In case you happen to bump into the lead singer on the street, he sees that the two of you are kindred souls and therefore invites you to join his band and you then go on the road and have all the manly bonding sessions followed by groupies that your heart could desire? OK, I'll give you that one, although this does suggest that you still harbour the fantasy that you might bump into Joey Ramone in Waterstone's.

"As for ladies in band T-shirts, give me a fricking break. First, gals, a badly cut, poorly made, oversized T-shirt is good for nothing other than wearing to bed and the gym. Second, too often women who wear band T-shirts appear to be going for what we shall call Groupie Chic. It is a style amply modelled by Kate Moss in recent years, and can pretty much be summed up as skinny faded black jeans, ankle boots, a ripped band T-shirt and a cropped fur jacket. In other words, a girlified version of Marc Bolan's or Keith Richards' wardrobe, as though the woman has been so busy, um, sleeping on the band bus she hasn't had time to clean her clothes, so she's now wearing ones belonging to her musical companion. This column has no time for such nonsense."

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:19 (ten years ago) Permalink

Yeah, because women have *no* interest in music whatsoever except for sleeping with musicians. What CENTURY is this cretin from?

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:21 (ten years ago) Permalink

I think I stopped wearing band T-shirts by the time I was 23. It wasn't necessarily a conscious move tho. I doubt I will ever wear one again tho - I guess it seems lame unless it's an old obscure or overlooked thus hip act (even this I dunno about). I don't notice many people over 20 wearing them. Does Matt DC still have that Save Ferris T?

I only want to sleep with musicians if they are hot as they are (their musical ability is pretty irrelevant in fact).

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:29 (ten years ago) Permalink

dear teh grauniad - a long time ago/we used to be friends...

― CharlieNo4, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:32 (ten years ago) Permalink

It went downhill after I left.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:33 (ten years ago) Permalink

or were you PUSHED?

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:35 (ten years ago) Permalink

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2007-09-02%2015.37.57%20-0700/Image-D15E03FF59A011DC.jpg

heh. (sorry alex, no harm intended)

― CharlieNo4, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:36 (ten years ago) Permalink

http://www.abc.net.au/sport/thesportsdesk/images/200607/20060707henrydive_derblog.jpg

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:36 (ten years ago) Permalink

i was being harsh really. i don't care what's on other people's t-shirts that much. just trying to work out why i stopped wearing/wouldn't wear band t-shirts myself.

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:37 (ten years ago) Permalink

Any t-shirt which isn't plain white clearly sucks that's why.

― aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:38 (ten years ago) Permalink

i couldn't agree less

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:40 (ten years ago) Permalink

I still wear band t-shirts if I like the band. Why not? I don't *define* myself or my personality by my music tastes any more, I haven't done that since I was about 18. But that's not the same thing as wearing a band t-shirt.

I suppose the fashion journalist in discussion cannot fathom the idea that clothes are just something you put on, rather than a definition of or statement about your personality.

This is definitely something that happens as you age - or rather, has happened to me as I aged. There's a subtle difference between Statement Clothes and just things you put on.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:40 (ten years ago) Permalink

Guardian editorial worldview circa 2007:

http://www.astucia.co.uk/images/sce/galibier%20tunnel%20_three.jpg

― tissp, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:41 (ten years ago) Permalink

why else would you buy a band t-shirt if not as a statement or definition of personality?

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:44 (ten years ago) Permalink

I didn't know it was a band t-shirt okay?

― Matt DC, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:45 (ten years ago) Permalink

because you're cold xp

― tissp, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:45 (ten years ago) Permalink

In the past I've usually just bought them as a keepsake of a gig I've enjoyed. The piece tracer quotes is idiotic fluff, obv. I'd be embarrased to admit I'd written that.

― Pashmina, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:46 (ten years ago) Permalink

Because you like the design? Because you like the music? Because it was given to you (this is where most of mine come from)? Because it was a souvenier?

x-post

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:46 (ten years ago) Permalink

you wouldn't actually buy a band t-shirt because you liked the design but not necessarily the band tho...would you?

because you like the music = statement/definition of you/your taste

given to you = not you buying

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:48 (ten years ago) Permalink

you wouldn't actually buy a band t-shirt because you liked the design but not necessarily the band tho...would you?

No, plus I've only ever bought them @ gigs.

because you like the music = statement/definition of you/your taste

Probably yeah, but w/smaller bands there's also the knowledge that in buying it, yr helping to supposrt the tour.

― Pashmina, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:50 (ten years ago) Permalink

i actually bought a comets on fire t-shirt solely because the design was so awesome. (it was at a gig, but they hadn't come on stage yet.) then i heard the music and i liked that too. i suppose if i hadn't liked their music, or thought it was boring, it would have posed a problem.

a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless so that alex in nyc doesn't stalk and kill him, bought a huge iron maiden patch when he was 14 and sewed it across the shoulders of his denim jacket. he had never heard a note of iron maiden, but he wound up becoming the biggest iron maiden fan i know, and even sung in a band later, where his vocal style was almost inseparable from bruce dickinson's.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:53 (ten years ago) Permalink

my take on this: do not read hadley freeman.

this resolution made some time ago, stands as strong today as it ever did.

it's a crass and deliberately invidious piece of writing. such an attitude, if sincerely held, could be turned around on pretty much ANY choice of clothing. so forgeddaboudit

― Alan, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:53 (ten years ago) Permalink

the last band t-shirt i bought - robyn!

alan i can't help myself, i know i'm sick and need help.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:54 (ten years ago) Permalink

is there a thread for best band t-shirts? must see

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:56 (ten years ago) Permalink

Taste is something that I have. It does not define me. Clothes are something I wear. The statement I am making is "I don't really care about clothes any more."

If I'm going to make a statement about clothes, I'll wear a bright green paisley jacket to a dronerock festival where everyone else is in leather.

I suppose my Hawkwind t-shirt is a statement, it says "ha ha, I'm wearing a Hawkwind t-shirt, I care nothing for fashion, I am wearing the shirt of a band so deeply uncool you can suck my left one because I love them!" But it's certainly not a statement saying that I want to f*ck any of Hawkwind or that I have a musician boyfriend whose Hawkwind t-shirt I'm borrowing, which is the assumption of that article.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:56 (ten years ago) Permalink

> I don't notice many people over 20 wearing them.

*SOBS*

> you wouldn't actually buy a band t-shirt because you liked the design but not necessarily the band tho...would you?

EAR t-shirt with the putney on the front = great. EAR live = terrible. (EAR on CD = ok, plus pram and stereolab were supporting)

― koogs, Monday, 3 September 2007 15:03 (ten years ago) Permalink

Skipping 5296 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Beware the smart toaster: 18 tips for surviving the surveillance age

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Lifeandhealth/Pix/pictures/2007/01/15/jh.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=7640f84b8fa22bff9c461e4854675828

― i'm surprised to see your screwface at the door (NickB), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:15 (four weeks ago) Permalink

only one winner in that particular battle of wits

― Thomas NAGL (Neil S), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:15 (four weeks ago) Permalink

top tip: pour your yogurt into an old padded envelope and simply cook it in the toaster

― i'm surprised to see your screwface at the door (NickB), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:17 (four weeks ago) Permalink

My bad, it's the book it's from that's called Magic Soup, although yoghurt-in-the-oven is the cover photo

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Soup-Food-Health-Happiness/dp/1409154920

― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:42 (four weeks ago) Permalink

Kate Adams has been immersed in healthy food since an early age. Her parents helped to launch the original Vegeburger and Kate worked in health publishing for 10 years. She was responsible for hits such as Gillian McKeith's You are What you Eat and Tiger Aspects Cook Yourself Thin. Depressed by her expanding waistline, Kate Adams set out to lose weight and keep it off for good. Six months later and over two stone lighter she decided to share her experience by setting up the Flat Tummy Club.

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:45 (four weeks ago) Permalink

flat tummy y cause i keep accidentally BURNING MY YOGURT

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:46 (four weeks ago) Permalink

whatever happened to noted poop-toucher and fake-degree-holder gillian mckeith anyway? she was everywhere for a while

― sir chesley bonestell, qc (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:46 (four weeks ago) Permalink

i've found her twitter

The British Lara Croft 😍😍 @GillianMcKeith pic.twitter.com/yVxnVFMp0q
— giles (@ImGilo) March 9, 2018

― sir chesley bonestell, qc (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:48 (four weeks ago) Permalink

Think I'm a Celeb p much finished her career:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/nov/20/gillian-mckeith-im-a-celebrity

Am slightly suspicious of this claim abt an 'original' vegeburger tbh.

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:51 (four weeks ago) Permalink

ur-burger

― i'm surprised to see your screwface at the door (NickB), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:55 (four weeks ago) Permalink

When I used to live in London this hippy yank guy called Greg Sams I once did some work for, claimed he patented the first vegeburger. But he was a total bs merchant.

― ken hom ad attack (calzino), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:56 (four weeks ago) Permalink

In this interview, Gregory Sams, author of 'Sun of GOd' provides fascinating insights into the meaning of our closest star -- the Sun. Gregory proposes that far from being just a meaningless ball of plasma, the Sun is an aware and conscious entity. Is this why so many ancient civilizations from the Sumerians, to the Egyptians, Mayans, Aztecs, Celts and Native Americans revered and worshiped the sun as a god? Gregory's ideas may seem radical, but up until 2,000 years ago, this was a widespread perspective throughout the world.

i like the cut of this fella's jib tbh

― sir chesley bonestell, qc (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 15:08 (four weeks ago) Permalink

As Gregory Sams awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into the inventor of the first vegeburger

― i'm surprised to see your screwface at the door (NickB), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 15:11 (four weeks ago) Permalink

He was a bit of a boastful name-dropping arse, chiming on about he was friends with Lennon blah blah, 1st macrobiotic restaurant blah blah.

― ken hom ad attack (calzino), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 15:14 (four weeks ago) Permalink

Nigella's version of that recipe is called Turkish Eggs, it is fucking delicious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ1Rd5HOEK4

― DJ U OK Hun? (jed_), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 15:18 (four weeks ago) Permalink

i'm getting almost overwhelming asmr vibes from that video

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 15:31 (four weeks ago) Permalink

lol at nickb's kafka rewrite

― sir chesley bonestell, qc (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 15:33 (four weeks ago) Permalink

LOOOOOOL someone I know works with Greg Sams rn and let’s just say she doesn’t see what’s wrong with Stuff David Icke Says. I dread having to hear her opinion on That Mural tbh.

― fuck ‘shopping a hat (suzy), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:39 (four weeks ago) Permalink

any numpt that thinks a gigantic ball of hydrogen/helium is a deity is not to be trusted on anything imo.

― ken hom ad attack (calzino), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:44 (four weeks ago) Permalink

that's Ra-cist

― bad left terf nut (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:52 (four weeks ago) Permalink

lol, apart from him!

― ken hom ad attack (calzino), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:52 (four weeks ago) Permalink

lol noods :D

― i'm surprised to see your screwface at the door (NickB), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 19:36 (four weeks ago) Permalink

To save Hungary's liberal democracy, centrists must work with the far right
Cas Mudde

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 29 March 2018 07:43 (four weeks ago) Permalink

that's exactly what I love about them " ".

― ken hom ad attack (calzino), Thursday, 29 March 2018 07:46 (four weeks ago) Permalink

Comments by Labour disputes panel chair who quit come as Corbyn tries to draw a line with Passover message

Comments by Labour disputes? Who quit come?

― lana del boy (ledge), Friday, 30 March 2018 19:30 (four weeks ago) Permalink

The Guardian view on B-sides

― it was stale, and I did not like it, as the man said, &c (seandalai), Sunday, 1 April 2018 23:51 (three weeks ago) Permalink

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/12/ultra-processed-truth-10-bestselling-foods-cherry-bakewell-fray-bentos-pies

This is my least favourite article that I’ve seen in the Guardian for a while. The uncritical acceptance of the opening sentence As the saying goes: if your granny wouldn’t have recognised what’s in it, it’s probably not real food. intensely annoys me, and it just gets worse from there.

I hope they publish a response from someone like Ruby Tandoh or Anthony Warner.

― AlanSmithee, Thursday, 12 April 2018 15:29 (two weeks ago) Permalink

that sentence is one of my biggest pet peeves because there's a certain... I don't know if I'd go so far as to say "casual racism," but a certain thoughtlessness to it. namely, that the hypothetical granny probably wouldn't recognize food from almost anywhere else in the world

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Thursday, 12 April 2018 15:35 (two weeks ago) Permalink

(I realize I say "____ is one of my biggest pet peeves" about once a week, but this one really does bother me. see also "it's full of CHEMICALS!")

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Thursday, 12 April 2018 15:37 (two weeks ago) Permalink

oh wait, never mind, here's the casual racism: A gold star for anyone who knows how surimi is made.

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Thursday, 12 April 2018 15:38 (two weeks ago) Permalink

at least it wasn't 'a gold star for anyone who knows how gefilte fish is made' i guess

― #TheBeatlesIn5Words Both surviving members are Vegan (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 12 April 2018 15:40 (two weeks ago) Permalink

damn

― had (crüt), Thursday, 12 April 2018 15:56 (two weeks ago) Permalink

I love at least half of the stuff in that list but tbf I'm not a middle class wanker

― you're my luger not my rifle (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 12 April 2018 16:01 (two weeks ago) Permalink

The editorial backing bombing the Syrian government is terrible.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/12/the-guardian-view-on-arms-control-signing-up-must-mean-something

At least the Mail doesn’t wrap their banging of the war drums up in evasion and appalling, meandering prose.

― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Thursday, 12 April 2018 18:25 (two weeks ago) Permalink

You UKers are lucky, at least you don't have Brigid Delaney in your edition. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/brigid-delaneys-diary

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 13 April 2018 05:40 (two weeks ago) Permalink

Oh dear, that wasn't good

― you're my luger not my rifle (Noodle Vague), Friday, 13 April 2018 07:36 (two weeks ago) Permalink

AusGuardian articles do little to dispel the idea that nobody there can write beyond a high-school level (or if they can, they emigrate).

― suzy, Friday, 13 April 2018 08:18 (two weeks ago) Permalink

oh yeah, i saw a brigid delaney piece linked from the front page of the grauniad yesterday and it was stunningly poor - still not quite entirely sure what it was about other than she missed a gig because russell crowe tweeted at her? classic polly filla stuff

― #TheBeatlesIn5Words Both surviving members are Vegan (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 13 April 2018 08:21 (two weeks ago) Permalink

She was also responsible for the masterful cockup referenced here, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thezenpagan/2017/01/welcome-to-tiny-train-world/

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 13 April 2018 12:42 (two weeks ago) Permalink

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/apr/14/gigs-cost-live-music

ok which of you buggers is this ?

― mark e, Saturday, 14 April 2018 14:53 (one week ago) Permalink

Not impressed. Calls himself an obsessive but only goes to 50 gigs a year.

― everything, Saturday, 14 April 2018 17:23 (one week ago) Permalink

You UKers are lucky, at least you don't have Brigid Delaney in your edition. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/brigid-delaneys-diary

since clicking on that link, every time i open the app it takes me to that page. so yes my guardian app is definitely worse than it used to be.

― lana del boy (ledge), Sunday, 15 April 2018 17:25 (one week ago) Permalink

sorry!

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Monday, 16 April 2018 10:01 (one week ago) Permalink

So I guess we're just uncritically reporting nazi propaganda now https://t.co/OgCdmVaYWz
— Crowsa Luxemburg (@quendergeer) April 26, 2018

just when their Windrush coverage was getting them deserved applause, they go do a much worse than they used to be thing like this.

― calzino, Thursday, 26 April 2018 07:53 (yesterday) Permalink

"Wave of Immigration" is a not bad Pixies song iirc

― songs by bands by Sondheim (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 26 April 2018 07:54 (yesterday) Permalink

Pixies outed as MAGA hat wearers shockah!

― calzino, Thursday, 26 April 2018 07:57 (yesterday) Permalink

come on if there's anybody you wouldn't be surprised to see Trumping it up

― songs by bands by Sondheim (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 26 April 2018 07:58 (yesterday) Permalink

the graun piece is just parroting some racist Trump supporting former Republican senator's ignorant claptrap, not good.

― calzino, Thursday, 26 April 2018 08:04 (yesterday) Permalink

we have to secure a future for white Christendom tho

― songs by bands by Sondheim (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 26 April 2018 08:09 (yesterday) Permalink

While you're here, we have a favour to ask...

― Google lobster hierarchies (Bananaman Begins), Thursday, 26 April 2018 10:02 (yesterday) Permalink

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