The Evening Standard sinks to a new low with a list of the predictions for 2017 from a bunch of the “capital’s wisest visionaries”
The Evening Standard used to publish revealing stories and its weekly ES Magazine was always a place where one could expect to see Dominic Dunne-esque revelations of society’s highs and lows.
Now, under the ownership of Evgeny Lebedev – a man keener to pomp up the egos of the likes of Sir Elton John and his titleless husband than on good, old fashioned investigative journalism – the paper has gone south and yesterday, it sunk to a new low in publishing a feature by Frankie McCoy and Rosamund Urwin.
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In a double page spread titled “Back to the future”, the columnists featured the views of eleven of what they ambitiously called “the capital’s wisest visionaries”. Amongst them were the loudmouth “gender X” blogger, Jack Monroe. She bizarrely ignored the common thought that “everybody is replaceable” and remarked: “No one will ever fill” the shoes of the late Labour MP Jo Cox. She also usefully added: “Gender is construct”.
Others featured included the nastiest television anchor in Britain, Kay Burley. Her claim that Prince Harry will “marry and have twins” this year plainly belongs in a horoscope and that the gossip columnist Perez Hilton also got a look-in seems odd given he has nothing to do with London and lives in America.
Hilton’s predictions that “Kanye West is going to divorce Kim Kardashian”, “Britney Spears is going to start dating a woman” and “Bella Hadid will actually eat an entire cheese sandwich” were of utterly no relevance and frankly the other offerings in the piece were about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
We call on the Evening Standard to raise its game. That would surely be a better thing for McCoy and Urwin to want this year.
Readers have their say
8 comments
Stop writing about irrelevant nonsense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should start supporting that AMERICA IS GOING TO BE GREAT AGAIN and Brexit is BRILLIANT FOR BRITAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nihilism at its best!
I had a look at the article. I have no love for the people you mention, but it did seem to me that the ES picked people from several walks of life and asked them to make predictions related to their ‘area of expertise’ – e.g. Nick Clegg for politics, Perez Hilton for celebrity, etc.
That said, it is quite a vacuous piece. Why people should be interested in the Kardashians is beyond me. They have no particular talents that I have been able to ascertain. You can pretty much guarantee that they will generate headlines in 2017, though.
On the subject of predictions, I’d like to make one of my own. Sir Reg really doesn’t look well at all in that photo. He survived the ‘curse of 2016’, but I’ve been wondering for a while if he’s long for this world.
No doubt his titleless husband will be devastated when Reg eventually pops his clogs and he inherits all that money.
But as long as he doesn’t spend it all on olive oil, I’m sure everything will be okay.
Nick Clegg, the political ‘has been’.
Lebedev Junior is a very odd looking fellow.
Most who know him say he is none too bright. Still, when one has an indulgent ex KGB oligarch papa life is made easy.
I do wish we could boot out these seedy Ruskies with their mysteriously gotten gains
Unusually, I agree with you. Nick Clegg was very lucky to hang on to his seat, considering the bloodbath that the Lib Dems experienced in 2015. I have no doubt that he’ll announce his retirement when the next General Election takes place, and we’ll subsequently see him on some kind of celeb cooking/dancing/reality show.
Still, I suppose he can take comfort in the fact that his political career lasted longer than David Cameron’s.
Though that’s not saying much.
A boring paper these days. Sad really.
Oh Dear Rod!!!!!!!! At what point, when meddling in global affairs, did USA stop being great and so needs to be great again? I am reminded that a certain pending POTUS being given to all of us apparently wishes to scupper efforts at preventing global warming.
Quite a lot of people think Brexit is going to be a disaster. For example farmers are saying that 90% of the businesses may have to cease. EU grants will stop and that affects conservation and food production. I am almost sure the worst is yet to come.
Honest Guv. Use a bit of commonsense.
Farmers don’t like Brexit for the understandable reason that they will lose millions in set asides