Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

Calzino is correct. For one thing May increased the Con vote. For another, prior to the election she was seen as very strong and unbeatable.

'May was a bad candidate' is re-writing for people who want to attack socialists.

My local Labour MP was doing it at branch meetings, within a couple of months of the election.

Hyde smugly mocks Corbyn for losing "against the worst candidate and campaign in recent memory" (Theresa May). This was Hyde in March 2017, sharing her sex pest pal predicting that May would "tear Labour to pieces" and that Labour would be lucky to win 100 seats. https://t.co/qgT1pKEnfZ pic.twitter.com/HceoLfMZJ5

— B (@Obsayxx) January 27, 2023

Well said. Great tweet. The facts are always out there. They always show these people to be wrong.

The Guardian is oddly obsessed with giving up alcohol. Latest of many recent articles.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/10/i-gave-up-booze-and-am-having-more-fun-than-ever-these-seven-tips-could-help-you-do-the-same

Other great self-care investments include a personal trainer (the equivalent cost of two rounds of drinks a week)

what kind of personal trainer can you get for the equivalent cost of a few bottles of Frosty Jack's Cider? (asking for a friend)

tbf frosty jack is my actual personal trainer

affordable ice cold refreshment while you train, sounds like a winning "best of both worlds" option that the graun hasn't considered here!

Surprising as people who work on newspapers have such a reputation for abstemiousness.

I gave up booze for almost the entirety of the lockdown and I can honestly say it made absolutely no difference to my health and wellbeing whatsoever. Should I write an article about it for the Guardian?

Yes.

When I had been sober for three months, I received a really big job offer – the sort that warranted a celebration.

I think there is a graun editorial rule that there are quotas of smug self-satisfaction per article that have to be met.

i can meet them!

that's just the Frost J talking

I now have a version of Phuture's "Your Only Friend" running in my head that starts with "THIS IS FROSTY J TALKING"

Earlier this week I was called by a Daily Mail journalist who told me Cohen had explained the messages he had sent on social media to a junior female colleague offering to take and send photographs of his penis as a "joke".

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 11, 2023

Fair play to the windmill fucker, he’s refused to leave this one alone.

I gave up booze for almost the entirety of the lockdown and I can honestly say it made absolutely no difference to my health and wellbeing whatsoever. Should I write an article about it for the Guardian?

― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Friday, February 10, 2023 11:47 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This could work if you also took up wild swimming?

Thank you to those who are reading and commenting on this thread. I've been working on this for over a year and, unless stuff gets reported, I am going to start naming names. https://t.co/EyalJxcKMR

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 12, 2023

good luck to maugham in his quest to destroy the entire rotten media establishment

I don't agree with his fox killing policy, but I doooo agree with his Nik Cohen killing policy

how is Cohen's health? He resigned from GMG on 'health grounds' yet still seems to be knocking out substacks (wtf they are!) and Spectator articles at a fair rate. Another example of how shite "cancel culture" is at actually cancelling confirmed miscreants.

i'm just boggled that people are so starved of spiteful centre right horseshit that they feel the need to pay for extra shovelfuls

Windmill on a mission is a tune we can all dance to tho

Bit bemused about the column in yesterday's Feast about what to do with leftover wine.

making ice-pops with it for the next heatwave?

wtf is leftover wine?

Well, exactly.

Such a stupid column. Man U being owned by the weird American Glazers was utterly dysfunctional too. But Americans respect human rights, apparently, so that's ok?

The fact that the fans won't care if Man U win the title again under Qatar or whoever isn't actually dealt with.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/feb/17/qatar-buying-manchester-united-would-be-a-disaster-just-look-at-the-state-of-psg

my experience of football fan Twitter is there's a vocal contingent of fans who wouldn't care if their club was owned by Nazis if they bought players and won stuff

Also Paris is not a one city club, as my recent visit to Red Star FC's ground to buy one of their beanie hats proves. I would have gone to a game but they're playing behind closed doors at the moment due to fan "misbehaviour".

Actually, what is a one-city club?

A one-club city

my experience of football fan Twitter is there's a vocal contingent of fans who wouldn't care if their club was owned by Nazis if they bought players and won stuff

― satori enabler (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 18 February 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Yes, I see a spectrum in twitter or outside from: a resignation to an acceptance that this is how it is, to the attitude you describe.

And I think Gulf states using 'soft power' tactics could be argued as being similar to how the West used this tactic in the cold war tbh. Does need more thinking about than Ronay is capable of.

(xp) He says one-city club in the article.

Football fans as a cohort generally pretty awful though. Got a rapist on the team? Who cares if he’s clapped, just tweet your little 🐐 emojis and shout down everyone who’s got a problem with it. Homophobia, HAHAHAHA FUCK YOU THE GAME’S ON.

speaking of 'phobia, I thought this being front-page (for me) was pretty rich: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/new-york-times-contributors-open-letter-protest-anti-trans-coverage

Tom D: FWIW Paris used to have Racing Club Paris, who were renamed Matra Racing Paris after their sponsors in the 1980s. I went to see them. Maxime Bossis, Enzo Francescoli and I think even Pierre Littbarski played for them for a while. They were very much PSG's local rivals at the time. They played in the Parc des Princes. But perhaps that club is now vanished.

Actually Racing Club still exist though they're based in Colombes, which is a suburb of Paris... but then there's Paris FC who do play in Paris. Any way you look at it, one-city club or one-club city, he's talking out his arse.

Ah ok lol, missed that on my skim of the piece.

There's also fourth-tier US Créteil-Lusitanos in the south-east of Paris, although their attendances aren't that high.

speaking of 'phobia, I thought this being front-page (for me) was pretty rich: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/new-york-times-contributors-open-letter-protest-anti-trans-coverage

this is just the classic issue of the us guardian being much better than the uk parent

Personally I'm going to be devastated if Qatar buys United. Sure the Glazers are likely hateful people with terrible opinions and no doubt enthusiastic supporters of the worst excesses of capitalism, and yes the US has a shameful record for human rights (as does the UK) but c'mon... Been a man u fan for ~47 years and I see no real option other than to just walk away from it all if the sale goes through. The thought of supporting another club just doesn't feel right at all, my heart would just not be in it. The worst of it is that foorball-wise the club seems to have turned the corner at last and it's been an absolute joy seeing Marcus flourishing again. Fucking bollocks.

"but c'mon..."

Go on...My reaction was to Ronay's piece. I'm interested to know why does this cross the line.

it's the link between the buyers and the qatari state and their policy of persecuting gay and trans people. I mean would fucking live it if I could dismiss this somehow but I just can't do it with a good conscience. I dunno. Was there a big outcry when the UAE sponsored arsenals stadium? Or is there a weaker link between the airline and the state?

love not live obv

Personally I'm going to be devastated if Qatar buys United. Sure the Glazers are likely hateful people with terrible opinions and no doubt enthusiastic supporters of the worst excesses of capitalism, and yes the US has a shameful record for human rights (as does the UK) but c'mon... Been a man u fan for ~47 years and I see no real option other than to just walk away from it all if the sale goes through. The thought of supporting another club just doesn't feel right at all, my heart would just not be in it. The worst of it is that foorball-wise the club seems to have turned the corner at last and it's been an absolute joy seeing Marcus flourishing again. Fucking bollocks.

Fair enough, Nick. It is the reason Ronay passed by to talk about the Qataris as bad managers, based on PSG.

I just find the debate around sports washing to be somewhat hypocritical. Things have gone down a hole at most big clubs and leagues. ofc Arsenal was criticised for the Rwanda deal but life (or more likely death) has always gone on.

I guess I react because the point of descent has been reached long ago and yet a lot of journalists are reacting now without any kind of acknowledgement because it's yesterday's news xp

I have watched little football over the last few years partly bcz it got less important for me (though the thing being eaten alive by money didn't help) but I still devoured the last World Cup like I was 13 again because in the end there is still magic in people kicking a ball about.

Yeah that wasn't a good moment and it was a huge relief to be shot of him after a mercifully brief period. Maybe I was a massive hypocrite to continue supporting the team while not endorsing an individual player? I'd have to accept that criticism. Tbh I didn't really take time to learn about Ronaldo's history, I don't really know the particulars of that case. I know more about Greenwood and if he ever ayed for them again, that would be unforgivable. xps

Things have gone down a hole at most big clubs and leagues.

Indeed.

I guess I react because the point of descent has been reached long ago and yet a lot of journalists are reacting now without any kind of acknowledgement because it's yesterday's news xp

This is v true and i do feel complicit in partially ignoring it