Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

The below the line commentators get on my nerves at the moment, especially the ones who have nothing of interest to add in their rush to be the first to praise their favourite contributors week after week , eg

Philippa is a goddess. Every single letter she writes resonates with me- it’s almost spooky. It’s the one part of the newspaper I look forward to every week. Incredible.

Jay, I was just wonering if I might be able to accompany you on one of your visits to an eatery (preferably, one which is half decent) just to test the veracity of your opinions. This could provide readers with some reassurance that you're not making all this up and that the photos do represent reality. I'd not want any financial renumeration for my trouble but would expect the food (and wine) to be paid for.

A friend of mine was a regular dining companion of JR, until she was obliged to go gluten free, at which point the invitations ceased.

for some reason I read JR as Judith Butler there. do they have thoughts on wheat?

Cheers for the link!

I applied, was accepted, had a lovely lunch at a local pub with a nice bloke - stayed for 6 hours drinking through the £100 tab they paid for - only to find they wont be publishing the piece as we got on too well 😆😁

— I was told of Gin (@Iwastoldofgin) October 31, 2021

Happy to report my wife has finally cancelled her Guardian subscription because of all the transphobia and also them taking sudoku out of the weekend edition.

https://eoinhiggins.substack.com/p/the-guardian-tries-to-intimidate

xp

it was the quick crossword and kakuru puzzle on the back page of G2 that had me still occasionally buying the print edition, but this was before they became transphobia central and the MI5 house paper.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/12/state-of-terror-by-hillary-rodham-clinton-and-louise-penny-review-politics-and-patriotism

Fawning review of Hillary Clinton's new airport thriller about "President Dumb" pulling out of the Iran deal.

Why do pols do this shit? Her husband has a couple out, too. Imagine Bernie or Corbyn putting out a ghostwritten thriller abt a leftist candidate getting fucked over by the right wing of their party, the clowning would never end.

i know its so undignified

https://i0.wp.com/www.booklovers.co.uk/Images/BookScans/162311.jpg

the Bennite Labour MP Brian Sedgemore wrote a couple of political thrillers back in the day, can't think of any other leftish politicians who have done this unless you count Chris Mullin who is probably better known as a writer than an MP

i stood behind him in a shop once, he was very tall

and now he's dead

coincidence?

'don't be tall in front of me!'

You've got to go back a bit...

https://www.bookword.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/639-EW-covers-768x935.jpg

Quite enjoyed the hammering Rachel Cooke received from BTL commentators for this 'peak Guardian':

Worried about waste and having too much ‘stuff’? Get rid of the fitted kitchen

what kitchens? "I often put a joint in our coal hole" - WHAT?!

The rarest of all things, a good Observer opinion piece.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/14/fortress-europe-violent-pushbacks-exploit-people-pursue-policy

has (old-school RCP and spiked! alum) kenan malik managed to circle back to being more or less ok?

I wouldn’t necessarily go that far but a lot of his pieces on migration are decent.

I think he wrote something pretty stupid and malicious very recently about trans people or free speech or something can't remember, all these people are the disingenuous monkey to me

Won't somebody think about the 5-star hoteliers?? Had to double-check that this wasn't in fact in the Times or Telegraph.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/nov/22/cheap-food-drink-accommodation-hotelier-life-without-eu-workers

The au pair agency article in that series is also “peak Guardian” in tone:

For families who employ au pairs, one of the benefits is having a (hopefully) fun person around to give their children an insight into another country and language. Another is having someone to help with childcare without having to pay the larger salary of a nanny.

that grand hotel overlooking Fistral beach is a beautiful building but you could probably rent out a decent little bungalow 5 mins up the road for a much cheaper and better holiday imo. Well that's what I did a few times.

Also much less likely to be transformed into a mouse by Angelica Houston and her covention of witches.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/23/my-pandemic-puppy-is-ruining-my-hot-vax-summer

lmao that is another peak guardian pile of piffle

'here's something you busy bees should find relatable!'

I know that many people, like me, already think that Marina Hyde is a bad reactionary.

But even so, I am surprised at the level plumbed by this particular, latest, column. Astonishingly poor in quality, in insight, in ethical and political values.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/26/britain-mp-vote-nick-fletcher-doctor-who-jon-trickett

Shameful.

Boris Johnson's CBI speech was nowhere near as depressingly bad and awful as Starmer's was. Even the director general of the CBI thinks Starmer is full of shit.

but yeah Hyde is fucking awful (again)

"the alternative is facing up to the bald reality that people actually preferred THIS GUY to his guy"

why not just say the UK electorate are mostly fucking awful and have been awful for decades, and in a FPTP system with the Graun demonising the LOTO on a daily basis it wasn't that hard for them to revert to type.

.. and awful to succeed again

I don't expect an arsehole like Hyde to go into the People's Vote stitch-up that completely fucked Corbyn in 2019. But let's not try to pass oneself off as a very smart and droll arch-cynic who knows what is going on, which is allegedly her brand.

It's not like Trickett wrote a think-piece about it either, just a one sentence tweet that was more about highlighting the hollowed out husk of the NHS that is now on the brink of being hollowed out even more by big US healthcare companies.

The Beatles were like aliens from the future in 1969 - and they are still as radical today
Jonathan Freedland

vicarious memories from a complete dickhead who was born in '67

To be fair, "Octopus's Garden" might have sounded radical to a 2 year old.

it sounded nice! we would be warm / below the storm / in our little hideaway / beneath the waves!!

i was a bit older than two tho

horribly ancient uglies who only existed on scratchy old ex-jukebox 45's is my memory of them and unfortunately I'm not that much younger than him. Anyway they weren't radical and they were fucking shite!

that army fetishizing wankfest was bad enough, but at least he kept it short.

Freedland doing his paper round and rushing home for the six-five special years before he was conceived is going to be the new pretending you lived through rationing and blackouts this week.

why do i get the feeling that if you played him a hundred other records that genuinely sound like aliens from the future, he'd only moan that they don't have proper songs like the beatles

That's well said, NickB. Most people don't actually like "aliens from the future".

It's not like Trickett wrote a think-piece about it either, just a one sentence tweet that was more about highlighting the hollowed out husk of the NHS that is now on the brink of being hollowed out even more by big US healthcare companies.

― calzino, Friday, November 26, 2021

Important point here: Trickett, in his ONE-LINE TWEET, did NOT go on about BJ creating a 'dead cat' effect.

And yet Hyde has written 3 paragraphs about how she doesn't like people using the phrase 'dead cat'.

I don't like it either, actually. But Trickett didn't do it. Hyde did. In an attack on someone who was defending the NHS.

She is morally disgusting.

"the world of Bedford vans, Charles Hawtrey and the Daily Sketch"

instead of making appallingly written clickbait for boomers, listen to Karyobin you odious bullshit merchant!

Baroness Hyde, no matter how liberal-left leaning she pretends to be for the sake of her hilarious ragging on the tories column, often can't help betraying how much of a tory wanker she is to the core.

*peeps into thread, retreats back into little hideaway beneath the waves*

https://www.diy-pest-control.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Rentokil_Carpet_Moth_Beetle_Multibuy.jpg

no one there to tell us/What to do !!

I know that for The Observer, Brexit is the primal scene of the nation’s disgrace, but this is actively disgusting. pic.twitter.com/lwTVC6w7DN

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) November 27, 2021