Apparently "Cyclists and their powerful backers are destroying London for the rest of us"

Simon E wrote:

And people wonder why newspapers are increasingly irrelevant? When they punt out uninformed piles of sh*t like this then their demise can't happen soon enough IMHO.

Well, The Independent is no longer availabe in print. It is now a news site like any other requiring articles that create big flame wars in the comment section to push the number of page views.

Expect this only to get worse.

cdamian wrote:

Well, The Independent is no longer availabe in print. It is now a news site like any other requiring articles that create big flame wars in the comment section to push the number of page views.

Expect this only to get worse.

I share your concern but let's hope it doesn't.

Yes I knew about the end of The Independent in print. I had been a fan in the early days, partly for how they upped the ante for the way photography was used and reproduced in newspapers. It later lost its way and became bland and seemingly without purpose.

Most columnists seem to be nothing more than loudmouth trolls whose only interest is in publicity (and of course the money it brings). This article eliminates the already slim chance that JSP's opinion on anything could be worth even 5 seconds of my time.

mike the bike wrote:

Be fair lads, Janet faces a lot of competition from younger, better looking and brighter women.  She is trying bravely to hold on to her place in the journalistic firmament and it gets harder every year.  Her tactic is to be more radical, more outspoken and more bigoted than the rest, and up to a point it's working.  She seems to pop up regularly on TV and has somehow maintained her connections at the Indie.

I don't think for one moment she believes the guff in her article, she is too intelligent for that.  No, she's just putting herself out there, which is all part and parcel of living in her world.  Give the old bat a break.

Just saying, I don't quite agree with how you've expressed the sentiment, 'cos it comes close turning it into a gendered thing, which it doesn't have to be. Its not just 'lads' who suffer 'cos of professional trolls like JSP, and I don't know that looks come into it.

Particularly pisses me off 'cos I expected better of her, what with the ramblers association link and all that. But then I expected better of Joan Bakewell than the garbage she just came out with about anorexia.

Really all media types have to act like imbeciles these days, I think, because increasingly they make their money by pandering to the worst aspects of the rest of the population. Never trust anyone who has opinions for cash.

mike the bike wrote:

Be fair lads, Janet faces a lot of competition from younger, better looking and brighter women.  She is trying bravely to hold on to her place in the journalistic firmament and it gets harder every year.  Her tactic is to be more radical, more outspoken and more bigoted than the rest, and up to a point it's working.  She seems to pop up regularly on TV and has somehow maintained her connections at the Indie.

I don't think for one moment she believes the guff in her article, she is too intelligent for that.  No, she's just putting herself out there, which is all part and parcel of living in her world.  Give the old bat a break.

It doesn't matter if she believes herself or not... It fuels the bad sentiment towards cyclists in the part of the population who doesn't recognise JSP for her 'quality'.... so it's just a bad thing.

mike the bike wrote:

Be fair lads, Janet faces a lot of competition from younger, better looking and brighter women.  She is trying bravely to hold on to her place in the journalistic firmament and it gets harder every year.  Her tactic is to be more radical, more outspoken and more bigoted than the rest, and up to a point it's working.  She seems to pop up regularly on TV and has somehow maintained her connections at the Indie.

I don't think for one moment she believes the guff in her article, she is too intelligent for that.  No, she's just putting herself out there, which is all part and parcel of living in her world.  Give the old bat a break.

I don't see why we should give her a break just because she's writing rubbish. If she wants to write non-rubbish then we'll judge her on that, but in the meantime, it's only fair to take her at her word (i.e. she's a moron).