The Independent C/D

that or the times.

shit so what's left in broadsheet? the guardian's shite for containing mess

the torygraph stands alone

i will be purchasing that in my weekly online shop then

FT as well. If the good lord intended you to read it in a leather armchair in your gentlemen's club then it needs to stay broadsheet.

oh yeah the FT. i never think of that as a newspaper, being economincally illterate and all that.

I think it'll probably turn into the daily version of the Observer in all honesty. The 'pictures of forest fires plus MELTDOWN' Indy isn't really a strong enough brand in its own right for its owners to get precious about.

I mean the Observer's news section has got flimsier and flimsier over the last 3-4 years and that approach would suit the Indy's whole look and feel and under-resourced newsroom pretty well.

there's also the possibility of indie and sindie merging rite?

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-despite-these-riots-i-stand-by-what-i-wrote-1608059.html

My column reported on a startling development at the United Nations. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights has always had the job of investigating governments who forcibly take the fundamental human right to free speech from their citizens with violence. But in the past year, a coalition of religious fundamentalist states has successfully fought to change her job description. Now, she has to report on "abuses of free expression" including "defamation of religions and prophets." Instead of defending free speech, she must now oppose it...

...An Indian newspaper called The Statesman – one of the oldest and most venerable dailies in the country – thought this accorded with the rich Indian tradition of secularism, and reprinted the article. That night, four thousand Islamic fundamentalists began to riot outside their offices, calling for me, the editor, and the publisher to be arrested – or worse

There is no "UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights". In fact there are currently 36 Special Rapporteurs, whose various mandates include "Human Rights Defenders", "Protecting Human Rights while Countering Terrorism", "Freedom of Opinion and Expression", and, yes, "Freedom of Religion or Belief" - appointed in 2004.

That night, four thousand Islamic fundamentalists began to riot outside their offices, calling for me, the editor, and the publisher to be arrested – or worse

you won't often find me siding with the nutters, but im firmly in the 'arrested - or worse' camp when it comes to tackling johann and his godawful newspaper.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/08/rod-liddle-edit-independent

burlimey.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2010/1/8/1262967838578/Rod-Liddle--001.jpg

"This week I 'ave mostly been eating... acorns"

"if he succeeds in buying the paper in the next few weeks"

lol 'if'.

is there some kind of law that forbids anyone who isn't a complete cunt from editing a national newspaper

Something to do with complete cunts owning them I think.

on the whole, the lids is less of a cunt than roger alton. but cue grinding of gears as he has to lose his shtick and become "serious".

Did Roger Alton ever do anything as vile as this?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/rodliddle/5601833/benefits-of-a-multicultural-britain.thtml

holy shit @ this

155 members

lets not forget that rod liddle, he was the guy, who left his wife, FOR A YOUNG ONE

roger alton printed unmediated government lies in the run-up to the iraq war -- it was probably the most pro-war serious paper -- but weighing that up against liddle's attention-seeking auberon waugh impression is certainly a quandary.

All we need now is John Pilger editing the Telegraph, Peter Hitchens the Guardian and Roger Scruton Attitude magazine and all will be right with the world.

well... the indie has always printed bruce anderson as well as various sub-guardian non-entities. it's the lib dems of newspapers. liddle used to get heat from the right for being a new labour stooge when he was on the today programme.

True. The Indie has Dominic Lawson, Howard Jacobson and Michael Brown as well amidst the pinkos, so in a way the ideologically all-over-the-place Liddle might actually be quite a sutiable choice.

i kind of hoped that racist spectator piece would make his career less viable à la jan moir, not more

Getting in on the Liz Jones action:

For Umar Farouk and many other Muslim men like him, living in such a landscape is literally intolerable. He confesses that he does try to lower his gaze in front of females, wonders if he should get married because he is getting too aroused. You could make a movie, a Taxi Driver for our times, about just such an anti-hero, the hormonal male who is expected to live a life of total abstinence in the middle of licentiousness.

The Pakistani journalist Maruf Khwaja describes this inner chaos in an Open Democracy blog. In some homes they cannot watch television, listen to music, dance or indulge in anything pleasurable: "(Muslims) want to do what their secular friends do, have nights out, go clubbing, have boyfriends and girlfriends. Many are depressed by social isolation and attempt to escape by leaving parents and Islamic legacies behind."

Others, like Asif, revert. He says he had a contact list full of willing white women whom he chatted up to "get into their knickers" and now that he is a good Muslim, he talks to covered-up ladies and can "really communicate with them". The saintly Muslim female has desexualised herself, protects herself in the polluted land she lives in full of mad, bad and dangerous sinners.

Even if you overlook his increasingly batshit and offensive lol trolling, this seems an insane choice given that Rod Liddle has no experience of editing anything at all on a daily newspaper.

i think im right in saying that geordie greig (sp -- the guy who edits the standard) lacked that too. he had edited the tatler though. editing the today programme is pretty big.

Editing a radio programme is nothing like editing a newspaper, and Geordie Grieg has hardly covered himself in glory at the Standard (although he had at least worked in a newspaper newsroom).

troo.

mind you, how hard is it to "stick a headline saying CRUELTY then put a picture of a dolphin or a whale underneath it."

lets not forget that rod liddle, he was the guy, who left his wife, FOR A YOUNG ONE

vicious takedown

YAB is an eternal puzzle to me. Half her stuff is perceptive and I like, half is lazy and vile. I thought today was one of the good ones.

sindie music hack and romo pioneer simon price weighs in (and so does nick cohen):

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=252240596901&v=info

Was Suzanne Moore the one who went to the Mail in protest at the New Statesman becoming too right-wing?

yeah (she was otm!).

she of the fuck-me boots iirc.

saw her read about her teen experience of a sabbath show in the 70s recently and she was great

is this the thread where rod liddle's cuntage gets discussed on ilx?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243845/Former-Today-editor-Rod-Liddle-racist-posts-football-supporters-website.html

Judging by the comments, he'll have a fine future as a BNP candidate.

Where's the constant outcry about the vile and hateful lyrics about women and gays in rap music? Deadly silence.

One way street.
- Honest Guv!, London, UK, 17/1/2010 11:33

I keep posting "he should be hung from a yardarm" on daily mail stories but they seldom publish my comment as roger, tunbridge wells

Even more genius than the 'rap music' comment:

Anyway he's got a point about black only organisations. Also black only nightclubs, & newspapers, fine by me I don't want to join go or read them. except its again one rule for one lot and another for the majority of us. Talk about a divided society.

- rikrok, London, 17/1/2010 9:06

Talking of YAB, one of Liddle's threads (or not as the case may be)...
http://www.millwall.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=26191&start=1

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/bruce-anderson/bruce-anderson-we-not-only-have-a-right-to-use-torture-we-have-a-duty-1899555.html

"After much agonising, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one answer to Sydney's question. Torture the wife and children. "

man, they'd better not let liddle edit the indie. would be so sad to see this important voice of the left lost to the dark forces of conservatism.

LJ would like you to know that he's mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore.

To be fair, Bruce Anderson is to The Indy as Bill Kristol was to the NYT. Surely they only publish his lunatic ramblings so the five remaining readers have something to "WTF?" at on their way to work?

Up sprang Sydney Kentridge, one of the great liberals of our age and a fearless defender of unpopular causes, from Nelson Mandela in the old South Africa to fox-hunting in modern Britain.

ah yes, mandela. still a divisive figure after all these years.

I think "in the old South Africa" was the specific caveat there.

"trendy" "falafel" "bar"

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%22Corbyn%20Value%20Meal%22&src=typd&lang=en-gb

Going by the gaunt, grey figure in his Twitter profile pic, Rentoul isn't exactly a good advert for the McDonalds diet

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=corbyn%20we%20want%20plates&src=typd

is there remotely such a thing as a 'trendy' 'falafel' 'bar' or does wes streeting just think that kebab shops are a bit too upmarket for britain's proles

They are exotic and foreign, and also vegetarian, because only a jessie doesn't want colon cancer

I wished all them Blairite arseholes lived on a diet of McDonalds, processed meat and sugary drinks, at least then you could realistically start nominating your faves for the death list while they are still relatively young.

next thing you know these snobs will be turning down donations from popular multinationals or popular billionaires, the trendy out-of-touch loons

millions of people in this country love ciggies, you trendy snob bastards

I actually have more respect for the old Tory John Gummer, like when he did a publicity pic eating a beefburger with his daughter during the BSE crisis in the early 90's. Well at least he wasn't repping for McDDonalds ffs. At the time it was considered quite a crass bit of politicking. lol he has nothing on these shameless fucks in the Labour party.