The right-wing Guardian
So some guy on Twitter got a lot of amused attention recently for tweeting this:
The problem is that the @guardian has now swung so far to the right that I don’t even bother to collect my free one from @waitrose any more! Sad to see a once great paper die but that is what’s happening. #BoycottTheGuardian
It’s not just him either, a lot of people on the hard left have been saying this recently, all because the Guardian doesn’t always toe the latest party line. Anyway, I asked him who had changed, the Guardian or him? To which he replied:
Genuinely a good question. I was always “centrist” Labour (although back then we called it “traditional working-class”) but I DID give Blair a chance until he blew it. Thing truth is probably the Grauniad and myself “diverged
So I thought, let’s have a look at today’s Guardian headlines and bylines to see how right-wing it has become.
First we have:
I kept telling the cat to stop being gross, but he just looked at me with contempt
Brigid Delaney
Mad cat ladies. Par for the course at the Guardian since time began.
A moment that changed me: when deep sadness drove me to counselling
Sachin Nakrani
The usual saddos. Also par for the course.
Kellyanne Conway proves patriarchy has no gender
Suzanne Moore
The usual left-wing buzzwords.
Hysterical, alcoholic and cut-throat: party conferences should be banned
Simon Jenkins
Ban this. Ban that. It’s Guardian world.
If the Czech economy is thriving, why are we so poor?
Saša Uhlová
Everyone’s always been poor in Guardian world.
Forget profit. It’s love and fun that drive innovations like Parkrun
Aditya Chakrabortty
‘Forget profit’, typical Guardian phrase.
The Trump administration knows the planet is going to boil. It doesn’t care
Bill McKibben
Loony Bill McKibben still wibbling on about global warming.
Public bathrooms are gender identity battlefields. What if we just do it right?
Simona Castricum
Everything will be fine if you just do what we say.
Fascist Spain meets British punk: the subversive genius of Judge Dredd
Ian Dunt
It’s Ian Dunt. And the phrase ‘fascist Spain’. And ‘subversive’.
Our cult of personality is leaving real life in the shade
George Monbiot
The cult of personality that the Guardian feeds with its mad obsessions with the individuals they endlessly demonise, like Trump, Bush, Thatcher, Reagan? That cult of personality? Also, I really don’t think George Monbiot has become right-wing.
Trump mocking Christine Blasey Ford shows how women are silenced
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
What was that about the ‘cult of personality again’?
Here’s how to beat the populists: stop talking about immigration
Natalie Nougayrède
Not exactly what I’d call right-wing.
Being a bit of a fan of the parkrun, I followed the link to the article about it. Some interesting stuff about the event and its founder but served with a huge side order of irrelevant lefty politics.