Polly Toynbee Talks Rubbish (An Ongoing Series)
Regular Observers (pun intended) of this blog will know that TheEye is no fan of the BBC or the Grauniad. Therefore much amusement came from an article by the unspeakable Toynbee in the said rag.
The socialist who lectures us on helping out the “poor” from the comfort of her villa in Tuscany observes that the Labour-job-advert-subsidised rag she is paid a fortune to scribble for is facing a financial firing squad. Her huge salary is, natch, not being donated back to keep the proles in the menial jobs. There is a chance that it might go under:
“Meanwhile, the national press risks following American newspapers to the great spike in the sky. Britain without the Mail or the Sun would be a happier place, less biliously nihilist, less miserable, angry and afraid. But democracy without the scrutiny of good journalism is unthinkable. In the end, it’s up to you. If you always read this on the web, go out and buy a copy, skinflint. Use it or lose it.”
Well give back your £120,000 a year for your gin-addled two weekly articles and leave us alone.
“But this is an emergency. Battalions of journalists with local knowledge are being sacked and newspaper expertise lost.”
You could hire how many real journalists with her salary…5..7.10? And we wouldn’t have to all fisk her rubbish on a weekly basis. Regrettably as TheEye has never bought a copy of the paper version of the BBC no newly imposed boycott of the Guardian can be done, but to see that rag die would give great pleasure. They do, however, use a spellchecker nowadays…they put John Major in as John Mayor, so things must be looking up for the sub-editors.
Do not read her article if your blood pressure is elevated or you are prone to throwing things at your monitor. This remains a *twitch* non-sweary blog, but reading her nonsense makes it a close-run thing.
For what it’s worth, I’ve just popped over there and left a comment outlining what I think.
I was half expecting it to be moderated but apparently not.
TheEye is now finding it increasingly difficult to sneak comments past (Don’t)HaveYourSay on the BBC.
Was even given a temporary suspension of the account a few months ago for a post which might have, to be fair, even made the G.O.T. wince due to the bile contained.
Ah, if they can’t take the truth…
Great link, I don’t think Polly got one supporting comment.
Sorry G.O.T., looked for yours but missed it.
This was my fav.
“We have a couple of free news papers each week which I instruct my paper boy to put directly into our blue wheelie bin. He is a good lad, he does it weekly without fail. His efforts are well worth the generous Christmas box we give him.
My local free and paid for papers are universally rubbish, even the paid for ( not ) one is now printed far away the previous evening so never contains any news, just council press releases and Sad Baby Story every Monday
heaved out of the filing cabinet on the Friday afternoon.
As for knowledgeable local journalists that sad old cow Poynbee goes on about ( I had to switch her off the radio yesterday for being irritating ).
They never check their so called facts. Whenever a reader has specialist knowledge about any particular story ( University, Yoga, Street names, Lifeboats, whatever ) the errors stick out like a sore thumb.
I have nearly abandoned The Telegraph because it has become so rubbish though I am tempted by the Mail because of the good stuff coming to my attention in Blogland.
TheEye only buys the Telegraph and the Times because of a preference to sit in the bar and do the crosswords with a drink or two.
The letters page of the Times is usually worth a look at the same time, but news-wise most bloggers who are passing on dead tree press stories nowadays seem to be linking back to the Mail.