Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

Exactly.

Like him, Truss is convinced the policies she advocates are popular with a majority of the public. For Corbyn it was nationalisation of the utilities, more money for the NHS and cheaper housing, all of which poll extremely well.

In other words they are popular with the majority of the public. Duh.

"David Walter Runciman, 4th Viscount Runciman of Doxford, FBA, FRSL (born 1 March 1967), is an English academic and podcaster who teaches politics and history at Cambridge University, where he is Professor of Politics"

viscount, podcaster, polprof

(i forget if i talked abt this, i was researching something in the british library a few years ago, which required me to read several back issues of the modern review, and found in passing a piece by runciman on BLUR: it was eye-stretchingly bad)

i cannot *stand* runciman.

i now want to read that blur piece.

i wondered if he was related to Steven Runciman and of course he his, nepo-politics forever

nepo discourse comes from the aristocracy at last

Zoe sticking to the really important issues of the day.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/01/the-wags-are-back-but-i-miss-the-carefree-days-of-posh-and-coleen

Probably their oddest columnist. She writes a lot about health and fitness and about her personal life.

Alternating between something serious and this.

I read it as some acknowledgement that their politics is too awful to fling on to ppl every week.

this may have become distorted in the rear view mirror but as far as I remember ZW was further to the left than most guardian commentators for a long time and a fairly vocal supporter of trans rights. when she started doing what suddenly seemed like loads more lifestyle fluff in a Tim Dowling style, I wondered whose call that was.

Still wrote a ton of lifestyle fluff for the Evening Standard before she joined the Guardian.

i have a soft spot for zoe williams but dont feel compelled to read her

didn't Zoe Williams used to be their sort of voice-of-youth columnist back in the day? Anyway, the oldest Zoe Williams column available on the guardian website is a list of '101 things we don't miss' published April 2001 that includes Roland Rat and Deely-Boppers, so her writing fluff pieces for them is not a new development

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/apr/21/weekend.zoewilliams2

I know her a little because we have many mutuals and I like her; she has no time for bigots or terfs, especially those in the media. She is definitely on the left despite going to private school in West London. Not crazy about the Poly Filla stuff she is asked to write, though. I say this all the time but columnists get their gigs because an editor becomes fascinated with some aspect of their lives and then they’re in that job forever. One huge reason her output has increased recently is that she has been seconded to Parliamentary sketch person while John Crace recuperates from his heart attack.

should i be worried abt the heart-attack rate among senior guardian columnists? god keep chiles safe!

He doesn't have Jeremy Corbyn and Brexit living rent-free in his head.

fluff is good again

it just goes to show that centrism is even worse for health than heroin addiction

Certainly at a policy level

and at a personal cost for Crace, the burden of being a disgusting neoliberal shill led him to get his posh works out again and inject a heart attack inducing speedball into his balls!

omglol

Say what?

Labour’s shadow chancellor says she is William Wragg incident and says it is right there is proper investigation

"But Doctor, I am William Wragg incident"

lol

As Rachel Reeves awoke one morning from uneasy dreams she found herself transformed in her bed into William Wragg incident.

Meltamorphosis

the foul insect-like creature was transformed into william wragg incident. It was a mixed bag but most certainly an upgrade of sorts.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/09/m-and-s-invests-methane-burping-farting-cows

what a load of bullsh- ah, right yeah, that's literally what it's about

just clicking on that graun website to see some more smouldering manure

Not worse just the same old same old from these double dyed cunts.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/25/frank-field-lib-dems-progressive

Leaving the politics aside it's a piece of will-this-do crap and as political analysis it's inane.

Guardian declare for "Sir" Ed Davey now, you cowards!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/27/elite-force-bucks-trend-of-ukrainian-losses-on-eastern-front

I thought the Azov Brigade were a far-right militia. Am I mixing something up?

it does briefly mention that in the article:

The 5,000-plus strong brigade has shed any far-right associations, relentlessly emphasised in Russian pre-invasion propaganda, and is one of the military’s elite forces, comprised entirely of volunteers.

ah thanks, I genuinely missed that sentence

would be good if they fleshed that out a bit though tbf

Looks like bullshit to me

i also have shed any far right associations and if you don’t believe me just ask me more about it

It's also saying yeah they were a bit fashy, but if you have a problem with that then you're just been played by putin

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/30/everything-must-go-by-dorian-lynskey-review-why-is-it-always-apocalypse-now

"In less skilled hands this 10-Armageddons-a-page pace might make for a depressing read, but Lynskey’s encyclopedic knowledge (we race from James Joyce to Joy Division, from Alan Turing to The Terminator)..."

It might feel that in 2024 the ways in which we can wreck the Earth are more numerous and potent than ever, but it was ever thus; the world has always been just about to end.

The first half of this sentence is absolutely true and the second half is delusional bullshit.

mat osman is the drummer from gay dad (bassist from suede)

I think it is broadly true that each generation since Hiroshima thinks the world will end with them, but since I haven’t read the book under review, I don’t know whether the author attributes that to paranoid narcissism on the part of religions/particular groups of people in the same way that I would.

Sensible politics is when you know the world will never end and everything will continue more or less like it is now, forever

Anxiety as capitalism drains the planet of ice and water is a load of trot rubbish fellas!

not sure what the reaction is supposed to be to this except "good, off you fuck then"

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/may/02/i-am-moving-tycoon-bassim-haidar-non-dom-tax-status-super-rich-exodus

I hope someone organizes a mob to chuck rotting fruit and vegetables at him as he boards the plane to leave the UK (hopefully never to return).

the case they are making for him being a net benefit to the UK seems to be

* he's a landlord
* he was going to list his company on the FTSE

oh no sir please don't leave us and take all the money that you don't pay any tax on with you, whatever will we do without you