Comments on: A study in bigotry: The Guardian’s “review” of Melanie Phillips’ new book

By: stephen bellamy

stephen bellamy — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:35:58 +0000

i thought you folks didn’t believe stuff you read in The Guardian

By: mavan

mavan — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 11:04:52 +0000

Jonathan Karmi wrote:

“The pre-digested read of Tony Blair’s anticipated memoir ‘The Journey’ is predictably full of contempt for Blair and Bush and contains this nice little line about the Jews … “Blessed are the money-lenders,” I said to Archangel Mandy, “For they shall inherit the House of Lords.”  Thanks John. Hilarious. What an intellectual giant you are.”

Jews?! What’s that got to do with Jews?! That’s a joke about the Loans for Peerages scandal.

I think you show your own prejudice by posting such nonsense.

By: voroddo

voroddo — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:55:37 +0000

” …in fact that [bigotry]’s the Guardian and most of Britain’s liberal Left.”

Hugely intelligent and useful bleat, that.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:54:07 +0000

Why acknowledge the fact this wasn’t a review by inserting the word in inverted comma’s and then attack it as such?

It’s part of an ongoing satirical series called Digested Reads.

“Here’s how he starts out, mockingly using the first person singular as if it were Melanie Phillips talking about her own reasons for writing her book:”

This is entirely inkeeping with the whole series and anyone that had conducted more than a minutes worth research would have realised this.

Furthermore, despite the tired old comeback many commenters here are trumpeting, it does not have to be funny to qualify as a satire, it can merely be an attempt at humour. I found it funny, I wouldn’t expect everyone in the world to, but I am not trying to reclassify things based on my own perceptions. but perhaps that though best demonstrates the differences between Crace’s readership and yours.

By: wendy

wendy — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:01:19 +0000

And one last thought : I’ve read the Crace piece 3 times, to allow myself time to think about,rather than merely react to, its content.

I have to say that it has a decidedly nasty flavour and is not remotely funny, in comparison to some of his other offerings.

Melanie Phillips is a brilliant and original writer with the courage of her convictions and I would say to her :’Live long and prosper’.

By: wendy

wendy — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 06:29:22 +0000

Acknowledgements to DA 75 , Jonathan Posner and Sara for making such very good points, all of which have made me think about my previous comments.
Having read some more of the Digested Reads, I agree that they are of a standard format and some are funny ,but I still think that my suggestion that John Crace perhaps do a similar review on one of Tariq Ramadan’s works has some validity.
This would be a test of the impartiality of the satire surely ?

By: Romo

Romo — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:23:26 +0000

Jonathan Posner: I think you’re wrong to generalise like this. I live in Hampstead. Write. Don’t vote Labour and buy the Telegraph. My newsagent sells lots of newspapers. I don’t think that the Guardian sells that many copies either. Haven’t they made a loss over the last year of about £38 million? However I agree with you regarding their obsession re Israel. It makes no sense and I refuse to read anything that they publish online – especially as the comments published are, in many instances, quite psychotic!

By: Jill

Jill — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:09:42 +0000

OK, quick note to those noting the Crace review was a “satire”. Yes, it was intended to be a satire, ended up being nore of a poor parody. however, even satire has to be funny, and though you can see he’s trying to be funny, it’s based mainly on recognition “humour” which doesn’t quite work, because those of us who read Phillips know that she is a serious writer with meticulous skills that she evidences every day in her work.

Man’s nothing but a wannabe.

By: Jill

Jill — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:01:07 +0000

I read that “review” and could not make head nor tail of it. i vaguely got the idea only after going back to Melanie Phillips’ page and checking out what the book was about.

I’m too tired to be witty (probably so was Crace, judging by what passes for his facial expression) so I’ll just borrow someone else’s term and call him a douchebag. But then that’s the Guardian (ha!) for you. Nothing I’ve read there relating to Jews or Israel has ever been anything but antiSemitic filth. Why expect anything better?

Whether you agree or disagree with Melanie P, at least you can understand what the hell she’s talking about! It’s called CLARITY, Crace! Try it sometime.

One virtue of his “review” – it does not persuade me to waste my time reading anything by him in the future. More time for Sex and the City reruns!

By: Sara

Sara — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 11:31:41 +0000

Ah, all of you, come on! You all think you are ‘right’. Melanie Phillips thinks she’s right. Jone Crane thinks he’s right. And so do all of you who write here. Including myself. This is part of our human dilemma – we love a good squabble and rant, while claiming that we just want to live in peace. But where should we start, if not by examining our own tone of voice and agendas. Melanie Phillips is being humoured by the left – but then again she’s not the nicest person in expressing her own vitriol either. If talking about religion, which Phillips like to do so much, maybe a closer examination of, at least, the Christian message would do well: Love thy neighbour as yourself. (But do we really love ourselves? That’s another question). The actual message of the religion is, I think, far more important than the ‘structure’ it’s created where the original words seem to get lost. Or maybe we should all just try and relax into buddhism. Oh – you do think I’m being unrealistic, don’t you?