Tabloid News

Today was the first day of The Guardian's new tabloid format - it was surprisingly successful.  Not to mention far more convenient to read - I didn't feel that I needed a clear fifteen square feet to open it up in.  Mind you, I can't help but feel that many down and outs will be disappointed at the loss of another broadsheet format newspaper - those big pages were as good as bed sheets when you were sleeping on a park bench.  Those tabloid sized pages just don't cut it when it comes to insulation from the cold.  One thing about the new Guardian which left me mildly disappointed by the lack of an attractive female philosopher displaying her intellectual assets on page three:  "Phwooar!  Look at the Double Firsts on her!"  Still, times change and there's no doubt that the tabloid format is the most convenient size for modern print newspapers.  That said, the last large size newspaper to go tabloid - The Independent - floundered and died, now existing only as a website. I hope that's not a portent for the future of The Guardian.

Not that there isn't plenty of news for the new sized paper to report on right now, what the ongoing implosion of the political right on both sides of the Atlantic.  There isn't much more to say about Trump and 'shithole' countries, besides, that new book does a far better hatchet job on him than I ever could.  So, let's look closer to home: the collapse of Tory-supporting Carillion (whose support of the Tories had nothing to do with it getting all those government contracts, of course) has been the icing on the cake of a week which has seen that odious right-wing creep Toby 'Look at me, I'm being daring and outrageous by consorting with eugenicists'  Young get his comeuppance, the current UKIP leader having to disown his girlfriend over her racist comments about Royal bride-to-be Meghan Markle and, best of all, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage calling for a second referendum on EU membership.   The latter development has probably amused me most.  Clearly, being part of the mainstream of political discourse, since the UK's suicidal decision to leave the EU, doesn't suit perennial 'outsider' Farage.  The solution?  Reverse the referendum decision with another referendum and Hey Presto!  Farage and UKIP are outsiders again with something to fight against, thereby justifying their existence!