Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Prolier than thou

Here's how to kick off in the Guardian; slag off the Telegraph.

10 comments:

West said...

Very good Tim.

Keep this up and they'll start paying you...

Tim F said...

Thanks for your comments there, Bob. The second one was a fruit-juice-from-nose moment.

patroclus said...

You're such a lovely writer, Tim. As Bob says, why don't you get them to pay you to write in the proper papery pages, where people who can't spell can't have a go at you?

Not that I really hold with that kind of thing, obviously, being a Web 2.0 Revolutionary and all that, but I'd be happy to make an exception for anyone who uses phrases like 'mildewy belch' and says 'up to a point, Lord Deedes'. Which would be you, then.

FirstNations said...

outstanding, tim!

orange anubis said...

Whenever I see someone reading the Telegraph on public transport I get a terrible urge to go up and cheerfully say 'Ooh do they still publish that?' Especially if they're under 60. What are they thinking?!

Tim F said...

Thanks all. To tell the truth, way back when in the olden days, I did write stuff for the real paper (well, the education section), but got sidetracked. And they will pay me for this one. (I think there's a formula relating to how many indignant squeals are provoked.)

The other admission is that I actually quite like the Telegraph.

I'll get me Barbour...

corin said...

An Independent reader myself, my dad regularly buys the Telegraph as he writes in the Sports section. And, over the years I've noticed a slow shift in his political leanings. He'd deny it completely, but while he might still describe himself as a socialist he does pine after a Mercedes or a house in the posh(er) area of Clevedon. Insidious, is what it is...

patroclus said...

I don't mind the Telegraph; it's the Mail that's pure evil. And I actually think a lot of your CiF commenters have a point about the Observer. I've recently found myself flinging its magazine across the room in disgust at its bourgeois vacuousness.

Of course it could just be disgust arising from uncomfortable self-recognition.

(And not the bits written by Rafael Behr; he writes some excellent stuff, and I'm not just saying that because he reads my blog and likes silly techno tracks.)

Anonymous said...

Hugo and Carol better not move to Edinburgh, a city so aspirational that Henry is just as likely to sit his A-levels alongside Wayne at an independent school as he is at a state school. Unfortunately, this city which I love is not only full of Hugos and Carols, it has an unusually high percentage of parents across the whole social spectrum who see independent schools as the only way to a successful life for their children. The first thing somebody from Edinburgh says, on meeting somebody else from Edinburgh, is "What school did you go to?" It's so depressing.

Anonymous said...

It's hard not to agree with the CiF commenters that the Guardian hides its good writing under a large bushel of Cotswold and Dell catalogues, and extraneous supplements.

I'm tempted to leave a comment there just to be the first to mention the Independant...