I always quite liked her, but the material she has been turning out for the last year or so has been of a higher order.

Have a read of this piece, for example.

Marina Hyde may be one of my favourite people in Britain!

Same here – she is superb.

No argument from me. A great polemicist piss taker who skewers anyone and everyone that needs it.

She’s brilliant,always hits the mark,and then …I remember…Piers Morgan and feel a little bit sick.
Why Marina,why?

When historians come to write the history of this period, they needn’t bother. Just collect all Marina Hydes articles together and publish them. It’ll stand up as the definitive commentary.

She’s absolutely brilliant! I’m trying to think of my favourite turn of phrase of hers, but there are so many. Describing Boris as ‘a fly-tipped sofa’ was up there 😀

Isn’t she Marina Ponsonby Cleft-Palette Huntingdon Symthe, or some such nonsense?, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Bumptonshire…Normal trajectory for some-one of her class, I guess; Posh school, Oxford, Writing gig…

Crikey – saw the thread and feared something bad had happened! Love her stuff.

Yep, she’s great! Makes me literally LOL at times.

Combine her with Victoria Coren-Mitchell and I go a bit of a dither…

I would add John Crace to the list of those whose analysis of political life requires greater exposure.

I was about to post that John Crace is still slightly better than Marina, but only just.

His adding of poignant personal experience is brilliant on occasion. His skewering of the plastic patriots with their ‘we won the war’ bullshit, involving his uncle (or father, I can’t quite recall) was superb.

Not hugely bothered by the ad hominem jabs at her background, her writing is on point and has been for years.

John Crace is another great writer. He’s very funny, but I distinctly remember his description of him getting to grips with his heroin addiction really had an impact

How I overcame my heroin addiction – and started to live

Isn’t she Marina Ponsonby Cleft-Palette Huntingdon Symthe, or some such nonsense?, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Bumptonshire…Normal trajectory for some-one of her class, I guess; Posh school, Oxford, Writing gig…

Do go on.

She is excellent and has been for quite some time.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/15/reeva-steenkamp-body-on-front-page

She is as Establishment as it gets, i.e. has no skin in the game. and her trajectory is as exactly as one would expect given her connections…Yes she’s a good writer, and I enjoy her stuff, but she’s not hugely different to Mary Wakefield (daughter of a Baron and Journalist) Peregrine* Worsthorne, (Journalist and Aristocracy), Lord Cecil, etc etc so on and on…The press in this country has form for this sort of thing, and it’s just another way of keeping power in a tightly controlled group of folk

*Yes, really.

She explains away the name change by suggesting that it couldn’t fit on the Sun’s header page when she started in journalism but I don’t think that problem exists for her now, apart from, y’know, I doubt it’d do her reputation at the Guardian any good.

has no skin in the game

I agree. I don’t think this weakens her writing though. Same goes for Tony Benn.

I am a bit meh about her type of journalism in general. It is humour, but when reading it I just find it a pain to keep having to disentangle the good jokes (plenty of them) from the good points (far fewer of those). A good joke is rarely a good point, and vice versa. John Crace is more succesful at blurring the distinction and I prefer his overall style, but the same applies.

So I think we’re in agreement, they’re both good regardless of background

So I think we’re in agreement, they’re both good regardless of background

Absolutely. It is a crying shame that more people won’t read their stuff, but when so many people are happy being spoon-fed their existing prejudices back to them as ‘news’ via social media, then the message will only ever be heard by the same few…

She’s brilliant. Her pieces on our current utter shambles are the only good thing about it (columnist writes about country being ‘governed’ by columnists. And fireplace salespeople.)

On jokes to points ratio: a columnist only ever needs one good point per article, and most barely manage that. She generally does have either a new or a sound take on a subject. I actually think someone has told Johnson to go easy on saying how bad it makes him feel to do the stuff he’s doing, after she pointed out that his feelings are not really the issue for most of us. Not a huge win but still…

Well (typically) I stand alone in disliking her.

Why?

The sad thing is that the majority of the population instead of reading either crace or Hyde (both brilliant IMHO) believe the type of rubbish that you get in the Sun/daily Mail

(I’m literally just off the phone with my mum telling me how the French are going to make holidays hard because brexit)

Going balls deep in culture war guff really is a winning formula for the Tories

Yes, it’s extremely important to consider a journalist’s class. Give me Rod Liddell any day of the week. He’s properly working class. Great journalist, very, very witty.

Why?

To be honest I’ve stopped reading her pieces. But from what I recall (which may be pish), whilst she writes well and is rather witty, she’s far too smug. It’s easy enough to critique others, but she rarely offers a solution and if she does suggest one it is questionable. Also, she tends to rarely critique anything too controversial.

I thought I was quite chippy about class, but it would never cross my mind to devalue someone’s contribution because of their upbringing.

Very poor show, old sport.

Also, I tend not to read guardian opinion pieces because… Well they are guardian opinion pieces.

But that Zuckerberg thing is superbly funny and perceptive.

The Guardian itself doesn’t had much skin in the game with regards party politics since Corbyn came along. That’s why it’s become a better paper these last few years. With Labour not really in the fight in recent years the paper has found itself without a party to back, so for the the columnists it’s become less about fighting and more about writing.

I enjoy Marina Hyde’s writing in the same way as I enjoyed AA Gill and still enjoy Jonathan Meades. Better smug than earnest.

Give me Rod Liddell any day of the week. He’s properly working class. Great journalist, very, very witty.

Absolute **** of the first order. Just Katie Hopkins packaged for the broadsheet market.

So this is Rod Liddle in the Spectator (apparently the *leading* magazine of the UK right), writing about how it's SO difficult to avoid being racist.

Let's talk about Rod Liddle's own history, since its not that well known. pic.twitter.com/UpRO54BxIc

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) September 16, 2018

I would happily appoint Marina to the dual role of Prime Minister and manager of the England football team.

That’s why it’s become a better paper these last few years

I think this might be the most wrong thing I have ever read. The celebrity story to news ratio has become ridiculous.

Agree about Rod Liddle, he is a massive reason To Work Around The swear filter.

Rod Liddell

Doesn’t mind dishing out a bit of domestic violence as I recall.

Lovely chap, salt of the earth, tells it like it is etc…..

I enjoy Marina Hyde’s writing in the same way as I enjoyed AA Gill and still enjoy Jonathan Meades. Better smug than earnest.

If you want to read the equivalent of a TV panel show, sure.

I would happily appoint Marina to the dual role of Prime Minister

I think she’s already written somewhere that newspaper columnists, with their avoidance of hard work and ignoring looming deadlines shouldn’t really be in positions on responsibility (expressed more funnily, in a piece about Johnson).

If you want to read the equivalent of a TV panel show, sure.

Perhaps you could instead direct us to your favourite Morning Star article, comrade?

I heard a certain regular celebrity columnist of theirs, a Mr J Corbyn, recently published an absolute barnstormer on the brave struggle of the Bolivian freedom fighters against their corporate American overlords, which even included his favourite quinoa recipe.

A terrible hack who appeals to centrists.
Daughter of a peer, married to a peer.
From private education to Oxford University to a job at the Sun.

Never had to worry about paying rent or bills.
Utterly comfortable in a world of Westminster and celebrity.
Completely London centric.

Writes the most puerile fluff that makes humourless people guffaw.

Perhaps you could instead direct us to your favourite Morning Star article, comrade?

Soz, didn’t realise that you were her husband.

A terrible hack who appeals to centrists.
Daughter of a peer, married to a peer.
From private education to Oxford University to a job at the Sun.

Never had to worry about paying rent or bills.
Utterly comfortable in a world of Westminster and celebrity.
Completely London centric.

Writes the most puerile fluff that makes humourless people guffaw.

Tell us one of your jokes then pal.

A terrible hack who appeals to centrists.
Daughter of a peer, married to a peer.
From private education to Oxford University to a job at the Sun.

Never had to worry about paying rent or bills.
Utterly comfortable in a world of Westminster and celebrity.
Completely London centric.

Writes the most puerile fluff that makes humourless people guffaw.

“Well, that’s just like… your opinion man”.

(J Lebowski aka ‘The Dude’)