Gary Younge & Luddite Journo

Gary Younge has been my favourite Guardian journalist since I first moved to London and discovered the beauty of a liberal newspaper (it's pretty exciting when the Press, then the ODT, then most dismally, the Herald, were what passed for decent newspapers before then) which actually offered analysis of events. Today's Guardian Weekly contained this excellent piece by Younge. As a sample:
But beyond Tottenham, those who took to the streets last week failed to advance any cause, embrace any ideal or articulate any agenda. This places them firmly in the context of a weak and ineffectual left that has failed to reinvent and reinvigorate itself in the face of a deep economic crisis.

Younge has the analysis and I always love to read it. Those games of who you would like to invite for dinner? I used to fancy having Younge and Nigella Lawson for dinner. Not that I expect they'd have a lot in common with me or each other. I do wish though, that we had some better news for the achievements of the left.

Reading about welfare from a historian's perspective reminds me of the harsh judgements meted out on the unrespectable poor in 19th century New Zealand. Eugenic ideas were bandied about then and they retain or have regained currency now. Thank you Luddite Journo for your blog post Turn the Page on Hate. When we dehumanise others, we dehumanise ourselves.

Cream cheese. I've decided it is my winning ingredient in terms of making otherwise ordinary food taste luxurious and special, even in small quantities. I added about 50g to tonight's self-crusting quiche and it lifted it out of mundane Monday night fare into yum stuff (to my mind and tastebuds anyway).

No sewing lately. I've banned myself from new crafty projects until I have this care worker exhibition underway, or even finished.

Comments

Christopher said…
Forgive me for talking about cream cheese pastry rather than class warfare, but my grandmother used to make the most delish cream cheese pastry in the food processor.

I'm sorry I didn't get the recipe from her but I imagine, having seen her make it so many times, I could whip it up. It had a pottle of cream cheese, flour, water, that's it, I think. But oh, so delish.
August 22, 2011 at 10:21 PM
Anonymous said…
Disagree with Younge's final conclusion, but agree with you that he is a powerful commentator. I do get sick of hearing that the media ought to be neutral - it is impossible to write without bias and I enjoy reading a well-written piece, no matter what the writer's presuppositions are.
I like cream cheese too.
~Rachael
August 23, 2011 at 12:05 PM
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