political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Can someone clear up a mystery for me? The issue is this: why does anyone ever read Quentin Letts?
The most cretinous, bile-filled, poorly-thought-through, bigoted, ignorant, personally abusive, unfunny, simplistic, arrogant, patronising, smug nonsense writing appears day after day. It is a total mystery why space is still made for it, and still more why anyone should waste a minute of their life that they'll never have back in trying to imbibe it.
"Yes, the Prime Minister's official Daimler limousine had been substituted for an electric runaround."
Methinks Quentin means 'substituted with..' ? But no matter, some minor glitches are worth it for this very amusing masterstroke - I am by no means fully signed up to the Daily Mail grumpy old man worldview, but Mr Letts does encapsulate what could go so badly wrong if Harman were allowed to succeed...
Hi, folks, Harriet Harman here with the details of a VERY IMPORTANT request. My 'Happy Blog Of Harriet Harman' is not getting enough visits.
http://harrietharman.blogspot.com/
This is because when typing 'Harriet Harman' into Google, for some silly reason the blog does not appear in the 'Top Ten' list. Sexism if you ask me !!
But if you, dear readers of Iain's Diary, were to link to it from your blogs [and maybe Mr Dale can help out as well ! hint, hint..] it may boost the popularity of this Happy Blog [and we all like happiness, don't we kids ?] in my upcoming leadership campaign.
I know I can rely on you to help, I mean, you always helped Blue Peter with their appeals - this is just a chance to even up the gender balance for 'Red Harriet' !
Here's an interesting fact about Labour.....Did you know (said in my best Michael Caine voice)...Did you know that under this Labour Government; the gap between rich and poor is now back to Victorian levels.
Can you imagine that?....from a Labour government....A LABOUR GOVERNMENT!!!!
Even the Tories under Thatcher never managed that.
Just another reason to annihilate them at the next election.
I'm sorry I didn't see Porta-loo making plainly bonkers statements on Newsnight. I had to miss it as I hadn't fully recovered from the woeful performance of Cathy Jamieson on Newsnight Scotland last night (she's the 'best and brightest' in the SLab party, apparently). Bloody hell. The women in the Labour party make me depressed for my own gender.
Ahem.. First of all, can I just say that I am not the author of the mysterious anonymous comment at 10:12pm. I am persistently dogged by impersonators and spoofs.
Second of all, I would never leave a comment without signing in.
Thirdly, I would NEVER EVER EVER beg a man (or his invariably male readers) to link me to his blogs, I don't care how gay you are.
Fourthly, I am familiar with the art of creating a link to my blog in a comment, and would never paste raw text in such an uncouth fashion.
FINALLY, just you wait till I become PM, Dale and you will find your blog one of the first to be swiftly censored, under the new internet watchdog statute.
Much as i hate Labour i really really hate Quentin Letts. His Etonian superiority complex and outright snobbish attitude to the working class is repugnant. And that article speaks volumes about his attitude towards women.
Yes, sorry, Harriet, I am the poster of the 'spoof' of yourself, sorry for any offence, it was just intended as an 'homage' to your wonderful, nay fabulous, site - and I wanted to encourage the readers of Iain Dale to post links to it in a slightly less dull way than a gruff..
"'Ere - link to this site you 'orrible little men "[and women of course!]. So sorry, Hazza, for any offence caused - I am just a spoof whereas you are, of course, The Real Thing ! My excuse is that I am a man with a very tiny willy so am susceptible to adoration of a big strong powerful woman, such as your good self - who will soon be getting this country back on track!
A good bit of satire which draws out and underlying point about the rabid feminism and anti-male bias of Harriet. ( She who has just tried to make it legal to discriminate against white males at work and murder then at home. ).
This can be demonstrated as:
1) Lots of left wing trolls are here talking about their freedom hating magic terms such a sexism. 2) It was funny. 3) She - to give her credit - made a similar joke in PMQs on all the men heading for the exits if she became PM.
Still with Harriet as PM Labour would be at 12% in the polls and Brown would look like a political genius.
That's why I'm, already looking forward to her as our second - if brief - female PM.
Did anyone see that at the Warwick/Coventry conference the brothers found that Shitty Varda was rude to them and have complained to Hattie? (Reported on Red Box a couple of days ago?) I suggest her preferment was due to Brown, being high function autistic or asbergers, can relate better to an illiterate termagant than normal humans. See also the civil servant remark in the comments in the Times piece about Brown - that he is NOT civil/funny/decent in private but rude, forgets names, kicks furniture etc.. IF hattie were PM we could have 'Lady' Varda at the FCO, 'Lady' Hodge at Education, 'Lady' Dean at the Home Office in charge of the unions, police, prison officers etc, Lord Gorbals Mick as leader of the Lords....What joy unbounded lies here.
He mentions Thatcher at least twice in the piece. Is this meant to be ironic or something because he's about thirty years too late for jokes on PMS and handbagging in cabinet meetings...
Letts can be observant and funny, but not this time. It takes a Littlejohn to write this kind of stuff without sounding laboured and contrived.
And the responses below said rather too much about Mail readers, most of whom were clapping like performing seals at his awkward prose (presumably the DM mods had only shown the favourable posts, as usual).
He should stick to Parliamentary sketchwriting and the odd film review.
Quentin Letts? What a cretin. Is this man a serious political commentator? Oh, of course, I forgot, he works for the Mail. I suppose we can look forward to a piece on "Imagine if Barack Obama were President..." in a similar vein? Or "Imagine if Iain Dale were Prime Minister..." (not likely, I know). Iain, I can't believe you suggested any of your regular readers waste their time on such crap.
The funny thing is, it's not half a bad Cabinet line-up - Vera Baird QC as Justice Secretary, Yvette Cooper at Education and Caroline Flint at Health would all seem pretty sensible appointments to me.
Funny how an obviously tongue in cheek article about Harriet becoming PM is treated as an outrage by the same group of people who thought dressing Labour supporters in top hats in Crewe was hilarious.
ps nobody forces anyone to buy, or read, any papers. end of story
HH we are told will get the wimmins vote because she is a wimmin and get the trade union vote because she is married (HH married to a man!) to one of the big union barrons.
I don't think so.
The unions know they have nu labour by the s&c who ever the leader is. I hope that labour women would vote on policies not on sex. She is too much associated with the Brown/Blair era.
Can someone clear up a mystery for me? The issue is this: why does anyone ever read Quentin Letts?
ReplyDeleteThe most cretinous, bile-filled, poorly-thought-through, bigoted, ignorant, personally abusive, unfunny, simplistic, arrogant, patronising, smug nonsense writing appears day after day. It is a total mystery why space is still made for it, and still more why anyone should waste a minute of their life that they'll never have back in trying to imbibe it.
"Yes, the Prime Minister's official Daimler limousine had been substituted for an electric runaround."
ReplyDeleteMethinks Quentin means 'substituted with..' ? But no matter, some minor glitches are worth it for this very amusing masterstroke - I am by no means fully signed up to the Daily Mail grumpy old man worldview, but Mr Letts does encapsulate what could go so badly wrong if Harman were allowed to succeed...
Iain: I keep telling you, put a tenner of Harriet being PM.
ReplyDeleteShe's loved by Labour 'wimmin' and will get a lot of support from the feminists in the media.
She will 'claim' that voting for her would be "real change"
A favour from the readers of Iain Dale's Diary...
ReplyDeleteHi, folks, Harriet Harman here with the details of a VERY IMPORTANT request. My 'Happy Blog Of Harriet Harman' is not getting enough visits.
http://harrietharman.blogspot.com/
This is because when typing 'Harriet Harman' into Google, for some silly reason the blog does not appear in the 'Top Ten' list. Sexism if you ask me !!
But if you, dear readers of Iain's Diary, were to link to it from your blogs [and maybe Mr Dale can help out as well ! hint, hint..] it may boost the popularity of this Happy Blog [and we all like happiness, don't we kids ?] in my upcoming leadership campaign.
I know I can rely on you to help, I mean, you always helped Blue Peter with their appeals - this is just a chance to even up the gender balance for 'Red Harriet' !
Love and kisses,
Harriet XXXX
Iain
ReplyDeletedo you really support Letts sexist crap
you could say the same about a gay PM
oh that would be out of bounds in the New Model Tory Party
but obviously not sexism
Iain; That's not even funny!
ReplyDeleteStop trying to scare us all.
Here's an interesting fact about Labour.....Did you know (said in my best Michael Caine voice)...Did you know that under this Labour Government; the gap between rich and poor is now back to Victorian levels.
Can you imagine that?....from a Labour government....A LABOUR GOVERNMENT!!!!
Even the Tories under Thatcher never managed that.
Just another reason to annihilate them at the next election.
OutRageous Specie-ism
ReplyDeleteIt's about time that we had a Hamster resident in No 10
Must have touched a nerve eh Mr Boothroyd. I thought it was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteOT Why is Portillo's hair and face bright orange on Newsnight at the moment???
ReplyDeleteSo according to Michael Portillo (Newsnight) Brown is our Obama!!!
ReplyDeleteNow I know Portillo has been hanging out with 10 ton Tesse from This Week for far too long.
Obama is another Blair. Full of teeth and bollocks.
martin - but it was the 'union man wot won it..' - he spotted that Ed Miliband is the British Obama.
ReplyDeleteToo much silliness about sex issues and not enough about how much of a disaster she would be! So would Wikiband!
ReplyDeleteIain,
ReplyDeleteyou just made me visit the Daily Mail website without me realising what I was doing.
The shame... the shame...
I'm sorry I didn't see Porta-loo making plainly bonkers statements on Newsnight. I had to miss it as I hadn't fully recovered from the woeful performance of Cathy Jamieson on Newsnight Scotland last night (she's the 'best and brightest' in the SLab party, apparently). Bloody hell. The women in the Labour party make me depressed for my own gender.
ReplyDeleteFlack jackets and stab vests will become all the rage if Hat becomes PM.
ReplyDeleteWe'll need them alright.
Ahem..
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, can I just say that I am not the author of the mysterious anonymous comment at 10:12pm. I am persistently dogged by impersonators and spoofs.
Second of all, I would never leave a comment without signing in.
Thirdly, I would NEVER EVER EVER beg a man (or his invariably male readers) to link me to his blogs, I don't care how gay you are.
Fourthly, I am familiar with the art of creating a link to my blog in a comment, and would never paste raw text in such an uncouth fashion.
FINALLY, just you wait till I become PM, Dale and you will find your blog one of the first to be swiftly censored, under the new internet watchdog statute.
We'll see who'll be making jokes then.
Harrumph!
Much as i hate Labour i really really hate Quentin Letts. His Etonian superiority complex and outright snobbish attitude to the working class is repugnant. And that article speaks volumes about his attitude towards women.
ReplyDeleteHarriet Harman is as bad as Brown.
ReplyDeleteHer old fashioned 'feminism' is outdated - Just like H Clinton is too old fashioned.
Harman is robotic and she lacks personal charm. Labour will lose with Harriet Harman as PM just like they will lose with Gordon Brown as PM.
The only real contender is David Miliband.
I'm sure DC is hoping Brown will stay.
Quentin Letts is not amusing. His view on the world is low brow I think he is a boring hack.
ReplyDeleteForget Hattie - Yvette for Leader !
ReplyDeletehttp://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/7/30/93912/2507
A Harperson premiership - a plot to make us long for the good old days of Brown
ReplyDeleteAlan Douglas
Its a disgusting sexist article. Shame on Quentin Letts.
ReplyDeleteDavid Boothroyd, you are an idiot. You message calling Quentin Letts abusive contained at least 12 abusive comments.
ReplyDeleteAh, but it's alright if a lefty does it, it is for the good of the progressive consensus! Straight from the Yasmin Alibhai-Brown book of morals.
Can we get Betty's autograph now?
Yes, sorry, Harriet, I am the poster of the 'spoof' of yourself, sorry for any offence, it was just intended as an 'homage' to your wonderful, nay fabulous, site - and I wanted to encourage the readers of Iain Dale to post links to it in a slightly less dull way than a gruff..
ReplyDelete"'Ere - link to this site you 'orrible little men "[and women of course!]. So sorry, Hazza, for any offence caused - I am just a spoof whereas you are, of course, The Real Thing ! My excuse is that I am a man with a very tiny willy so am susceptible to adoration of a big strong powerful woman, such as your good self - who will soon be getting this country back on track!
Love you lots !
Mwah XXXXX
A good bit of satire which draws out and underlying point about the rabid feminism and anti-male bias of Harriet. ( She who has just tried to make it legal to discriminate against white males at work and murder then at home. ).
ReplyDeleteThis can be demonstrated as:
1) Lots of left wing trolls are here talking about their freedom hating magic terms such a sexism.
2) It was funny.
3) She - to give her credit - made a similar joke in PMQs on all the men heading for the exits if she became PM.
Still with Harriet as PM Labour would be at 12% in the polls and Brown would look like a political genius.
That's why I'm, already looking forward to her as our second - if brief - female PM.
lowbrow, sexist, bile-filled, crap, - thank goodness letts article is all these things and more.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone see that at the Warwick/Coventry conference the brothers found that Shitty Varda was rude to them and have complained to Hattie? (Reported on Red Box a couple of days ago?) I suggest her preferment was due to Brown, being high function autistic or asbergers, can relate better to an illiterate termagant than normal humans. See also the civil servant remark in the comments in the Times piece about Brown - that he is NOT civil/funny/decent in private but rude, forgets names, kicks furniture etc..
ReplyDeleteIF hattie were PM we could have 'Lady' Varda at the FCO, 'Lady' Hodge at Education, 'Lady' Dean at the Home Office in charge of the unions, police, prison officers etc, Lord Gorbals Mick as leader of the Lords....What joy unbounded lies here.
He mentions Thatcher at least twice in the piece. Is this meant to be ironic or something because he's about thirty years too late for jokes on PMS and handbagging in cabinet meetings...
ReplyDeleteLetts can be observant and funny, but not this time. It takes a Littlejohn to write this kind of stuff without sounding laboured and contrived.
ReplyDeleteAnd the responses below said rather too much about Mail readers, most of whom were clapping like performing seals at his awkward prose (presumably the DM mods had only shown the favourable posts, as usual).
He should stick to Parliamentary sketchwriting and the odd film review.
Iain,
ReplyDeleteDo you mean Duck Face Hattie?
And LabourHome is suggesting Ms Cooper. Tough choice
ReplyDeleteYes, just imagine!
ReplyDeleteHarriet Harman, naked.
ReplyDeleteEveryone got a mental picture of that?
Right. That was in case anyone thought Harriet being PM might be in any way funny.
What Letts says is good satire - though somewhat sub-Private Eye.
ReplyDelete@ David Boothroyd.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right - but he's a helluva lot more entertaining than you.
I have not read the Letts article. However, I agree with every word of it.
ReplyDeleteQuentin Letts? What a cretin. Is this man a serious political commentator? Oh, of course, I forgot, he works for the Mail. I suppose we can look forward to a piece on "Imagine if Barack Obama were President..." in a similar vein? Or "Imagine if Iain Dale were Prime Minister..." (not likely, I know). Iain, I can't believe you suggested any of your regular readers waste their time on such crap.
ReplyDeleteDavid Boothroyd was obviously copying down his description from his last personal evaluation!!!
ReplyDeleteFor the record I enjoy letts. He is an articulate, amusing columnist.
The funny thing is, it's not half a bad Cabinet line-up - Vera Baird QC as Justice Secretary, Yvette Cooper at Education and Caroline Flint at Health would all seem pretty sensible appointments to me.
ReplyDeleteI dislike Harman intensely but that article was just a load of sexist bulls**t. Even worse - it was not remotely funny.
ReplyDeleteFunny how an obviously tongue in cheek article about Harriet becoming PM is treated as an outrage by the same group of people who thought dressing Labour supporters in top hats in Crewe was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteps nobody forces anyone to buy, or read, any papers. end of story
Anonymous July 31, 2008 11:43 AM
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't happen to be Andy Burnham would you ?
PS The more you leftie trolls say its sexist and not funny - the more we laugh.
Just find it delicious to see the lefties on the run....doesnt matter where the ammo comes from..
ReplyDeleteThe article might be sexist.
ReplyDeleteSo what? It's contrived, dull, hackneyed and plain old unfunny, and that's the sin.
HH we are told will get the wimmins vote because she is a wimmin and get the trade union vote because she is married (HH married to a man!) to one of the big union barrons.
ReplyDeleteI don't think so.
The unions know they have nu labour by the s&c who ever the leader is.
I hope that labour women would vote on policies not on sex.
She is too much associated with the Brown/Blair era.
When is someone going to put Quentin Letts out of his misery?
ReplyDelete"The only two men in the Cabinet were Chris Bryant at Culture (on the grounds that 'he's an honorary girl')"
Jeez. We said that sort of thing at school.
Right then, Iain, I am off to read Harriet Harman's blog, after all she is an honourary poof...