- Fri Nov 14, 2025 8:43 pm
#100019
That's how I feel.
I have donated in the past, but I won't any more. Jones is a big name columnist, and every paper needs those. So I give him a pass, in more ways than one. I'm more irritated with the one-sidedness of Monbiot, who's supposed to be rigorous because he puts in footnotes on his website. (I may have mentioned him before). There's the "Why does Farage get so much media time?" when every other day it seems his face is peaking out from the online blog. There's the easy time the Lib Dems and Greens are getting, which is so obviously going to be the line taken at the next election. There's the "never mind the bond markets, maaaan" stuff. And there's the constant nimby stuff.
And Simon Jenkins. His apparently very large salary is a very quick saving they could make.
There are experts on every subject under the sun very easy to look up on social media. And, presumably, just as keen to write for money as anyone else. It's been quite uncomfortable (politically for me) to see so many getting stuck into Labour on tax. But I recognize their expertise, and I'd like to read articles by them. I recall the old editor of Rail, Nigel Harris, writing an article for The Spectator on the problems with HS2 (Treasury overspecifying because of paranoia about future risk). He said nobody else had asked him. Why ask an expert when you can wheel out Jenkins and co to tell you it's corruption?
Perhaps it's a bit like the BBC nowadays, should be much better, but also in a genuinely difficult position with the fragmentation of politics, media etc. And perhaps I'll miss it when it's gone (behind a paywall). But it's not doing enough for me at the moment.
I have donated in the past, but I won't any more. Jones is a big name columnist, and every paper needs those. So I give him a pass, in more ways than one. I'm more irritated with the one-sidedness of Monbiot, who's supposed to be rigorous because he puts in footnotes on his website. (I may have mentioned him before). There's the "Why does Farage get so much media time?" when every other day it seems his face is peaking out from the online blog. There's the easy time the Lib Dems and Greens are getting, which is so obviously going to be the line taken at the next election. There's the "never mind the bond markets, maaaan" stuff. And there's the constant nimby stuff.
And Simon Jenkins. His apparently very large salary is a very quick saving they could make.
There are experts on every subject under the sun very easy to look up on social media. And, presumably, just as keen to write for money as anyone else. It's been quite uncomfortable (politically for me) to see so many getting stuck into Labour on tax. But I recognize their expertise, and I'd like to read articles by them. I recall the old editor of Rail, Nigel Harris, writing an article for The Spectator on the problems with HS2 (Treasury overspecifying because of paranoia about future risk). He said nobody else had asked him. Why ask an expert when you can wheel out Jenkins and co to tell you it's corruption?
Perhaps it's a bit like the BBC nowadays, should be much better, but also in a genuinely difficult position with the fragmentation of politics, media etc. And perhaps I'll miss it when it's gone (behind a paywall). But it's not doing enough for me at the moment.
- By Bones McCoy