I am relaxing after plodding around Prague, soaking up the sights. Then Allegra from Newsnight calls

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I am relaxing after plodding around Prague, soaking up the sights. Then Allegra from Newsnight calls
 2006-08-18 19:25:27
autor: Maureen Lipman

I've walked them off. My feet. They are pink and puffy and strangely distant. In the mornings they feel arthritic. They need oiling. Truthfully, they need kneading. I blame global warming, summer soles and the great city of Prague. I was there visiting my son and daughter-in-law who have been living there for a year.

Wanting to travel with hand luggage only, I took just one spare pair of heels and my trusty espadrilles. (I did once fly to Amsterdam for the premiere of a vanished film called Supertex, held in a stunning art deco movie house. Unbeknown to me, I had taken one shoe of my own, size six, and one of my daughter's, size four. I couldn't work out, as I hobbled up to be introduced from the stage, what had given me the one swollen foot.)

Prague is a less sturdy Amsterdam crossed with a less sinister Venice. Framed by verdant hills, nothing rises above the magnificent houses save elegant spires. It is lovely. The streets are cobbled, there are towers on bridges and clocks on everything, and I wanted to see it all and soak up its atmosphere. I set off on foot around squares and into museums, around the eerily-preserved Jewish quarters, back to the hotel to change, then out again for dinner, in the heels. The result was a couple of burning blobs at the far ends of my legs.

Most people seemed to be wearing these huge, luminous, man-made fibre creations called Crocs, in lime green and hot pink, that are reputed to be so intensely comfortable they spoil you for your Blahniks. They also make you look like Shrek's mother, but hey - that may be no bad thing.

I recently invested £125 in a pair of ergonomic trainers which claim to give you balance, weight loss, better posture and a brilliant sex life. (I could be lying about one of those.) I'm supposed to build up an hour a day before I can wear them all the time, but right now because of my feebleness they are sitting boxed up, in the hall, waiting to be exchanged for a pair of pyjamas and a sports-bra.

In Prague, my son and I took a tram and a bus to see the zoo which is particularly human and animal friendly. A leisurely breakfast of fried eggs and spinach in his local cafe meant we arrived in the heat of the midday sun in which only mandrills and Englishmen go out. On this baking day, even the mandrills stayed indoors. After the visit, my son crashed out at his flat but his foolish mother, reluctant to drag her feet, took to the streets in search of culture and forced them around the art nouveau posters of Mucha, the backpack glam-clamour of the Charles Bridge and the Old Town Square, where she waited, breath bated, for the famous church clock to open its doors on the hour to reveal its gliding apostles. It must have been devilishly impressive in the 14th century because it still draws a gasp from a generation brought up on the Matrix.

The guided tour of the Jewish quarters was two hours of heart-stopping information. In our party was a representative of an 18,000-strong Jehovah's Witness convention. We knew so little of each other's faith, but he was sympathetic at a distance when I saw the names Rosenthalova and Lippman on the wall list of the 77,000 murder victims. He, like me, had not known that Hitler intended to preserve the synagogues and surrounding ghetto as a proud relic of an extinct species.

We had our last meal at La Perla on top of a glass and steel building called The Dancing Lady. From a certain angle it resembles Fred and Ginger in mid quick-quick-slow. I had duck liver and artichokes with red snapper to follow and I want to go back there and soon. With very small wheels fitted under my feet.

In hotels I tend to fall asleep with the television on. Only Sky was audible and intelligible, in my room and I must have heard their wretched theme music and endless opinions of Jack Straw's outburst 20 times all through the night. When I awoke about 6am it was with a half-finished verse in my head. I wrote it down as I do with vivid dreams, knocked my water over it and went back to sleep. When I awoke I read, with difficulty:

"So you abhor, oh Man of Straw,

George and Tony's stance on war.

"Crikey, this is most unfortunate,

Israeli strikes are disproportionate."

Weren't you the chap who, 'ere the

sack,

Blanket bombed most of Iraq?

Petrified a civil nation,

Without an act of provocation.

Gung-ho geezer, Julius Caesar,

Lenses in, for Condoleezza.

While Blair's away, in the USA.

Contenders all, come out to play ..."

What does it take to turn off my, brain? In my sleep? Why would I bother? Hot milk and cinnamon ... temazepam ... the Terminator ... a sledgehammer? I put the scrap of Czech Post-it in the bin. Fifteen minutes later, over the Healthy Breakfast, slyly tinkering, I added;

"Your tune's so changed - can I just

check it?

Will no-one rid you of this troublesome Beckett?"

An hour later my mobile rang somewhere in Mala Strana. "Hello, it's Allegra from Newsnight."

(Oh, no, please no ...)

"We're putting together a panel to discuss today's events in Lebanon and we wondered if ..."

"No, no, I'm on holiday ... I don't like the loony letters afterwards comparing me to Goebbels. I mean thanks, but no thanks. Really. Try Howard Jacobs ..."

The relief when I got off the phone, unemployed, was palpable.

Almost immediately it re-rang: "Sorry, Allegra again, erm, we do have a studio in Prague if you felt like popping ..."

"I'm sorry too but I've booked for a concert in the Dvorak Hall and ... "

(It was Vivaldi - yeah, the Four Seasons - and, frankly, I can't be doing with it since every corporation this side of Mongolia started using it as hold music to fuel BT's Christmas bonuses, but I was greatly looking forward to having my eyes closed and my feet up on the chair in front.)

Oh, the relief, the sheer relief when, for once in my life I didn't shake my head and say yes. That night I dreamed of Gerard Depardieu for whom, thankfully, there is no rhyme.

· This week Maureen saw Rock'n'Roll by Tom Stoppard: "A great prologue to a weekend in Prague." She also saw Sorted: "Very angry Post Office workers. I blame the postcodes." Maureen read My school report from the fifth year - "Maureen would get much better results if she stopped showing off and trying to impress her friends." Over to you for comment, AA Gill?
Taplow

August 7, 2006 07:25 AM

I find Maureen witty and charming. Her column occasionally has serious undercurrents that scarcely puncture the surface - I'd love to see them fleshed out one day.

This is one lady I would love as a friend. Especially as I, too, am given to creating doggerel (sorry, Maureen!) in the middle of the night.

I'm an old gran but still able to appreciate quality.

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Zagradotryad

August 7, 2006 10:56 AM

Take a boat up to the zoo. Much nicer way to travel.

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REN99

August 7, 2006 12:06 PM

I enjoy reading Maureen's column every week. If you don't like it, don't read it. There are lots of columnists out there, in lots of different newspapers...

If you think you can do better, then try a bit of freelance writing yourself instead of slating others.

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Cerro

August 7, 2006 12:42 PM

Of all those who get off on attacking Ms Lipman, how many are simply against Israel's actions, or are there any with valid criticisms of her writing?

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bedebyes

August 7, 2006 02:03 PM

Maureeen a bigot, mmm?

I assume you refer to her comments on TV?
Well to differentiate between those that love death and those that love life, to support those that teach their children to become 'martyrs' and those that don't. To actually be realistic enough to know that giving up some land to bring peace and your enemies respond with rockets directed at civilian people, won't.
To know that your children and grandchildren are 'legitamate targets for murder' just because they're jews, whether they live in London or Tel Aviv and to be referred to as 'People of the Book' in the same breath as 'Sons of pigs and dogs' and to see marchers on the streets of London screaming abuse at jews for their (assumed) support of Israel whilst patently ignoring or excusing the suicide bombers of Iraq, the genocide in Sudan, the ongoing theft of land in Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, etc. The bombing and killing of hundreds of Kosovan civilians by the British under NATO, then you know what?

I'm a bigot too. Only my bigotry is directed at the idiots that believe what they read in the Guardian and what they hear and see on the BBC.

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Zagradotryad

August 7, 2006 02:04 PM

Oh wow, major pruning!

Let me say it again.

Maureen, next time don't eat at the Dancing House. Go further up Resslova, less than a minute, to the Czech pub U Parasutistu.

It's got real Czechs in it and nice, if unpretentious, grub. It's also just across the street from the Orthodox church of SS Cyril & Metodius. That's the place where the guys who killed Heydrich in a 1942 act of resistance against the occupation died after an epic siege against 600-700 SS men. Where you ate you'd have been able to look out onto the street where the fire brigade's hoses were run up from the Vltava to flood the crypt the last ones were holding out in.

When you next visit you can look out for the plaques on the walls of buildings commemorating the people who died in the May 1945 Uprising againt the occupation. Lots round Smichov and at the foot of Petrin.

If you look further afield you'll also find plaques commemorating the lecturers and students executed by the Germans in November 1939 for demonstrating against the occupation.

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Ruperty

August 7, 2006 02:06 PM

What's gone wrong with the Guardian? Or is it me?

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Scandaliser

August 7, 2006 02:13 PM

Ren99, thanks to this blog, we can try it ourselves. We can try a bit of upaid, freelance writing and slag Lipman off!

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MisterGrumpy

August 7, 2006 02:27 PM

Hmm, weird. The comments on Maureen's piece are unrecognisable from those that were up this morning. What's the point of running a (pseudo) blog if it becomes subject to ever more ridiculous censorship?

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downsman

August 7, 2006 02:31 PM


We do understand the pressures you are under over there at the Guardian, but this censorship feels terribly one-sided and a little creepy. Can someone with authority please publish a clear argument for it?

To recap, Maureen made some shocking remarks on This Week, was recorded by your print edition on Saturday making some more shocking remarks (this time attacking "self-despising" British Jews). Today you publish a piece of hers containing a 'humorous' poem about the Middle East crisis.

In these circumstances, to scythe down any posted comment which treads on her own chosen ground but happens to disagree with her is, on the face of it, inexplicable.

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Lacanian

August 7, 2006 02:43 PM

Excuse me Guardian, where has mine and some of the other comments gone? If your going to selectively censor then please explain what policy you use to arbitrate the selection process?

If you felt my comment had no substance then it was perfectly fitting for Lipman's article.

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handinthebush

August 7, 2006 02:54 PM

yep can you imagine the fit the Guardian's leader writer would have if Labour excercised similar levels of censorship on a blog written by Tony Blair....and here is me thinking that it was a bastion of free speech....

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Fruits

August 7, 2006 03:23 PM

My comment has been removed too.
All I said was that Lipman's a dangerous writer.
I stand by it, and moreover think it's important it's said in counter to those who simply "find Maureen witty and charming".

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joolzey

August 7, 2006 03:58 PM

Yes, Lipman's contrived jauntiness never fails to grate but is she really as gung-ho about Israel's latest atrocities as people are suggesting?

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MrPikeBishop

August 7, 2006 04:04 PM

"...the actress Maureen Lipman, referring to Mr Blair's speech earlier this week as "pro-Israel", told the Jewish Chronicle: "It was brave. I was very pleased." She added: "The death toll of women and children was terrible in the last attack. I felt ashamed. But we know terrorists use innocents as a human shield."


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nagajchaos

August 7, 2006 04:29 PM

I agree with Lacanian. I posted the first comment in this thread, a criticism of this rubbishy tripe 12 hours ago-- now it's gone, replaced by that incredibly smug piece of garbage from Taplow... what is going on here? If you are going to censor criticism and only leave the smarmy fawning of an obvious dimwit like Taplow, then... welll, freedom of the press is limited to those who own one, true, but why is Lipman spared these attacks?! Something stinks in this thread-- besides the atrociously stupid article by Lipman, that is.

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Lacanian

August 7, 2006 04:38 PM

Does anyone know how this system works? Does the author of an article have the ability to delete comments on the thread? No other thread seems to have been vandalised in this way. Is Maureen silencing the critics or someone from their seat on high?

By the way Guardian, most of the comments that have been removed voiced valid opinions on the article. Very few were in relation to her stance on Israel. It seems slightly unjust to remove these comments anyway, but more so, to remove comments that don't even take a position on Lipman's opinion on Israel (which i suspect is what this is really about).

I personally find her attitude disgusting, but that is not why i posted my original comment on this awful piece. I hope my original post was not removed for reasons of perceived opinion creep.

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MrPikeBishop

August 7, 2006 04:40 PM

I see my earlier comment has been deleted. That's a shame. I had merely posted, as a public service announcement, the address of my own blog where comments are not censored for political content, or for having a pop at authors.

I hadn't even has a go at Maureen, in fact, I think it's self evident that... uhhh, Maureen Lipman is a...brilliant woman who has come up with many...well-thought-out, practical ideas... and is insuring the financial future of this company. Oh, and her personal hygiene is beyond reproach.

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handinthebush

August 7, 2006 04:53 PM

if they delete your post does that mean your half an hour "ban" ends straight away?

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handinthebush

August 7, 2006 04:55 PM

considering Lipman get a - rightful - pounding every week for the tedious drivel she pumps out about her life Ijust don't understand why the Guardian keeps putting her stuff on CIF. let alone go to the effort of censoring every negative comment

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downsman

August 7, 2006 05:13 PM


Here is my take on it so far, Lacanian. I'm going to keep my account as view-free as possible, because opinions seem a little unpopular with CIF at present. Whenever I post these days I always feel like the witnesses at Stalin's showtrials who occasionally glimpsed his waxy face through a small window in the corner of the courtroom.
1 Maureen expresses views which shock some / not others, on This Week, re the Middle East conflict.
2 Maureen then writes her usual semi-serious piece in the Guardian.
3 A number of posters object like it and say so. Others think it is rubbish and say so. A third category don't care, but want Maureen to explain her odd views about race.
4 A week or two later, many of the posts in the second and third categories are removed. No explanation is offered. A possible part explanation which occurs to me is that CIF feels comments about This Week on an unrelated CIF piece are out of bounds. But this does not seem to explain why many of those who just thought her piece rubbish were also censored. One of two were offensive, but most not.
5 Then David Hirsh publishes a piece on CIF supporting Maureen and saying her remarks on This Week were not racist. He does not take issue with those who just think her remarks were objectionable, but not 'racist' according to his definition.
6 His piece gets a lot of posts. They include one from me. There comes a point when CIF stops all further posts to it. I don't know if any were censored.
7 It transpires from Murray (editor blog) that CIF first refused to publish David Hirsh's piece at all. Tom Happold wrote him a letter giving clear editorial reasons for not doing so. But it seems clear there was a massive behind-the-scenes campaign to have it published, by an organisation called Camera and others, to which CIF eventually acceded.
8 Then this morning Maureen publishes her Monday piece. Its second section has a long poem which seeks to make humorous points about the Middle East crisis. To my eyes, it also pursues some of her political views about the Israel issue.
9 Posters then comment on her piece. Some think it is just rubbish and say so. Some take up her pursuit of the Middle East issue, some strongly, some with less force, one (me) in the form of a poem.
10 An hour or two later most but not all are removed. My short poem is one casualty, but only one of many. The remaining first post (as someone has noted) is one by a self proclaimed "old gran" who finds Maureen "witty and charming".

Allegra - here is your Newsnight story, perhaps?


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Lacanian

August 7, 2006 05:29 PM

another one of my comments has been deleted. Funnily enough the one with reference to Lipman's stance on Israel. What the F*** is going on here? Is it you removing them Maureen?

If this post is removed i'm going to stop posting on CiF and i'm going to take my money elsewhere. I buy the Guardian every morning and have done for the last 5 years. If i can't express my views freely on this blog then it's over to the Independent for me.

Did i mention that i think Maureen is a racist?

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Stepworth

August 7, 2006 05:47 PM

Hang on a minute! Why has my post been removed? All I said was that Lipman's brand of vacuous clubby biographical lifestyle journalism was boring and irritating--but wholly obnoxious when it started being pro-Israel in a rather lax and shallow way. Much as with Norman Johnson's repellent piece on Saturday, I hardly think a jolly ha-ha tone and butter-knife satire is really appropriate to the matter at hand.

Ultimately, however, it's just how boring Lipman is that gets me--since she's probably more irritating than she is influential. Why let tedious flaccid chat about nothing in particular creep into an otherwise quality features section?

I find the Guardian removing this comment really silly. It's the sort of censorship that, had it been carried out by the Telegraph, would have merited self-satisfied and satirical commentary in the Diary section.

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MrPikeBishop

August 7, 2006 05:54 PM

Researching this squabble I now see I've come late to it - that's what never reading I/P threads does for you... However, I still don't see justification for the blanket censorship here -not, I guess, that an independent body has to justify actions on its own site...

BUT, Lacanian, others, if you want to talk about this, my doors are open. I would post my URL but I don't want to bring down wrath upon my head again

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downsman

August 7, 2006 05:55 PM

A brief factual correction to point 7 in my previous post. The organisation Camera objected to two news reports by the Guardian, not to CIF initially rejecting Hirsh’s piece. It was Hirsh himself who visibly campaigned for his piece to be published, a campaign also pursued through Engage. He said she needed to be protected from the allegation that she is a brown-shirt. The Press Complaints Commission supported the Guardian’s stance on the news reports.

I want to repeat that I have no objection to Maureen publishing in the Guardian, if enough readers find her material of interest. But she must expect her very trenchant views about international politics to be robustly commented on.

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Shachtman

August 7, 2006 06:24 PM

downsman. You are a liar ! Hirsh's piece was not put onto the front page of CIF and was only allowed on his personal blog. This was the case from the beginning ! So stop lying !

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Lacanian

August 7, 2006 06:31 PM

Yo Sachtman! you mean this article that wasn't put onto CiF?

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_hirsh/2006/08/stop_harassing_jews.html

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Shachtman

August 7, 2006 06:37 PM

Lacanian. Sorry to disappoint you in your attempts at trying to find a Jewish conspiracy. This is what Tom Happold, acting editor of Comment Is Free wrote to Hirsh as the article on Engage states. He wrote it after Hirsh submitted his piece. So by reading it you will see that from the beginning it has been on Hirsh's personal blog - to access it you have to go to his blog thru' going onto his articles page. So get your facts right you lying little jew baiter !

http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/article.php?id=537

"Sorry David but we have put your piece on your individual blog. I'm worried that events in Lebanon are tipping the site over into a single issue bun fight and so trying to cut back on pieces related to the conflict. I also felt that your piece simply restated many of the things you have touched upon before: the academic boycott, the crassness, racism and anti-semitism of a small but notable group people who comment on Cif, and the offensiveness of comparing Zionism with fascism. Apologies, because I know you put a lot of effort into your posts.
Best wishes,
Tom"

http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/article.php?id=537

what

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downsman

August 7, 2006 06:41 PM

Actually Shachtman I'm not lying. I have not it seems understood the difference between a personal blog and the 'front page'. I thought it was a reference to its being transferred to the Engage site off CIF - something which has been done to a previous Hirsh article by the CIF editor.

It is a shame your opening accusation is that someone is a liar. It gives a flavour of the animus of those who fling the 'anti-semitism' label around so freely, as Mr Hirsh sadly does. It also gives an idea of the sort of pressures CIF is under from some quarters.

I happen to think they've got it badly wrong on this occasion, but I wouldn't be in their shoes for anything.

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Shachtman

August 7, 2006 06:45 PM

Downsman "I thought it was a reference to its being transferred to the Engage site off CIF - something which has been done to a previous Hirsh article by the CIF editor." Sorry i don't get what you say. Can you clarify if you realy mean that the CIF editor has tranferred an article to the Engage site off CIF. Do you think the CIF editor is controled by Hirsh ? Do you think there is a conspiracy between Engage and the CIF editor. Hirsh is the editor of Engage and when he writes an article for CIF he links to it on Engage. A bit of a difference from what you are insinuating !

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Shachtman

August 7, 2006 06:47 PM

Downsman " It also gives an idea of the sort of pressures CIF is under from some quarters." And what quarter is this - the elders ?

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juliobenjamino

August 7, 2006 06:52 PM

"..The result was a couple of burning blobs at the far ends of my legs"
I think she's funny, I really do. I notice a lot of her protesters claim they are merely expressing a point of view as valid as anyone else's, yet go on to vomit forth the most venomous bile I've ever seen, levelling extremely personal remarks about herself, her religion, her acting abilities, etc ad nauseam. These points do not a winning debate make.
"Is there something wrong with the Guardian?" No, they continue to print her articles because they are popular with the majority of their readership.
"Why is Maureen on the front of the Guardian again?!" Because research has revealed that circulation figurtes increase and they recieve mostly positive feedback from this.
That's just simple marketing.

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tarxien

August 7, 2006 07:00 PM

All the earlier comments which were in any way, even mildly critical of Lipman's column have been removed. The comments which are left do not make any sense as some of them are in response to the censored ones!

I have never seen this happen on any other blog.

I cannot believe the Guardian censors are doing this so it must be Lipman's decision.

I have even less respect for her now than I did before.

And frankly after the 'Arab life is cheap..' comment she has lost all credibility

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bedebyes

August 7, 2006 07:34 PM

Tarxian.

I think she meant that arab life is only cheap in the countries ruled by arabs.

That's why in the apartheid and racist state of Israel, the arab population is the best educated in the middle east with per capita the highest proportion of university degrees, have the longest lifespans of anywhere in the middle east, the lowest incidence of infant mortality and most dissapointingly for Israel's critics, have the lowest incidence of, per capita, emigration in the middle east.....although no-one is actually stopping them from leaving.

In fact isn't it ironic that for the persecuted arabs of Darfur the one place they're begging the UN to resettle them is, yes you guessed it........Israel.

Do you think that's something to do with the fact that Israeli arabs are the most free and also the richest?

You know, living in a country that now enjoys a higher standard of living than Britain?

Funny that.

Sometimes being offensive isn't quite so offensive when the offender is right.

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DutyPaid

August 7, 2006 07:35 PM

"What does it take to turn off my, brain? "

The most vapid of your musings yet - and this is your brain on?!? Crikey!


Lacanian

August 7, 2006 07:47 PM

Shachtman: "Lacanian. Sorry to disappoint you in your attempts at trying to find a Jewish conspiracy. This is what Tom Happold, acting editor of Comment Is Free wrote to Hirsh as the article on Engage states. He wrote it after Hirsh submitted his piece. So by reading it you will see that from the beginning it has been on Hirsh's personal blog - to access it you have to go to his blog thru' going onto his articles page. So get your facts right you lying little jew baiter !"

You strange man. Why all the vicious words and hatred? Projecting your prejudices all over the place like that will only make you a sad and angry man. I can recommend a good shrink if you'd like to talk to someone.

Shachtman

August 7, 2006 07:48 PM

Lacanian. Thanks for the offer of help. But why don't you also address the points i have made ?

Shachtman

August 7, 2006 07:49 PM

Lacanian. Probably because you are wrong !

NorthernLight

August 7, 2006 08:08 PM

I don't know about Maureen, but surely it's CiF that's lost credibility. I wasn't going to comment on these pages again since the 30 minute rule, but the new wave of censorship/post deletion/account deletion was brought to my attention and I was moved to return!

What is going on? I read some of the early comments which have since been removed and they were far from offensive or illegal. If you're going to censor opinions, you could at least censor indefensible ones.

Comment is still free over at MrPikeBishop's site. I guess just posting a link to it will get this deleted, but it's not hard to find if you check his profile here and pop his name into Google (Frank Fisher) along with the word "blog"...should come up as about the third one down.

I'm so disappointed by the attitude on CiF. It's a bit like losing a close friend....

Think before you censor. Remember, a reader lost is not replaced every 30 minutes.

RonaldDumsfeld

August 7, 2006 08:13 PM

Maureen Lipman is a brilliant woman, an exemplar of all that is virtuous and peace-loving. She loves all people regardless of race and religion; she values all life regardless of race and religion and she is a top woman, top top woman, I wish she was my mom. She does not believe that other people value human life les than she does, she does not believe that tearing innocent civilians apart from bombs can ever be in proportion; she had not come across the word 'proportionate' before and that's why she made that comment in This Week; she is a brilliant woman, just brilliant, not served alas by her reptilian ageing features and oily make-up.

Shachtman

August 7, 2006 08:14 PM

Lacanian. Sorry but my comments were meant for Downsman.

NorthernLight

August 7, 2006 08:19 PM

Oh, and anyway, the 30 minute rule is really easy to get round. Shame it's not so easy to re-post a deleted comment...

Shachtman

August 7, 2006 08:24 PM

Lacanian. "If this post is removed i'm going to stop posting on CiF and i'm going to take my money elsewhere. I buy the Guardian every morning and have done for the last 5 years. If i can't express my views freely on this blog then it's over to the Independent for me." I hope you do !

Shachtman

August 7, 2006 08:25 PM

Lacanian. "If this post is removed i'm going to stop posting on CiF and i'm going to take my money elsewhere. I buy the Guardian every morning and have done for the last 5 years. If i can't express my views freely on this blog then it's over to the Independent for me." I hope you do !
BTW i've been buying the Guardian for over 20 years if it helps !

billstickers

August 7, 2006 08:53 PM

http://blog.frankfisher.org/blog

...Where drivel isn't sacred.

Discuss Maureen Lipman's literary shortcomings 24/7/365.

kev50

August 7, 2006 09:26 PM

slippery Jack nailed to a tee.

Lacanian

August 7, 2006 09:35 PM

Shachtman: "Lacanian. Sorry but my comments were meant for Downsman."

I can see he really gives a shit.

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Shachtman

August 7, 2006 10:48 PM

Hey lacanian what's ur problem - did a good looking Israeli once knock you back or something ?

Lacanian

August 7, 2006 10:53 PM

once, but we're married now. Stranger things have happened.

chekhov

August 7, 2006 11:04 PM

"The thirty minute rule is really easy to get round" Is it? Tell me more (he says naively, as if this will get past the censors!) Bloody Hell and we are supposed to live in the epitome of 21st century democracy. Oh dear!

redmushroom

August 7, 2006 11:52 PM

It really is sooo boring, every time Ms Lipman posts, she is mercilessly pummeled by CIF readers. As a number of people have already written, if you don't like it, read something else. There are plenty of people (including me) who like her articles.

And another thing...

Can someoe explain why Hizbollah has become a shining cause on the left in Britain? After all, they are a nasty, paramilitary, terrorist organisation with a really good PR department. It's really baffling.

MarkT

August 8, 2006 06:17 AM

What a vapid dreary piece of writing. Comparable only to
Tracey Emin's self-absorbed column. Ms Lipman really does not have anything significant to say here and it shows. I suppose its just a matter of filling in the white space and producing her quota. The doggerel on politics just makes it even more disjoint coming on top of her stuff about her foot problems.

Lacanian

August 8, 2006 08:33 AM

redmushroom: "Can someoe explain why Hizbollah has become a shining cause on the left in Britain? After all, they are a nasty, paramilitary, terrorist organisation with a really good PR department. It's really baffling."

I think you'll find they are not a terrorist organisation. Only classified as such in Israel and the USA, those model nations who value human life and democracy for the few. Queue Lipman on the value of human life....

MrTrilby

August 8, 2006 09:38 PM

What happened to my comment? It was the first one, posted shortly after this inane trash dribbled its way onto my computer screen. To summarise: Blah blah oh yah Prague. Blah blah rich. Blah blah sorry Allegra at Newnight I'm just y'know rilly busy in Prague being rich. Blah blah expensive lifestyle. Blah blah namedrop. Blah blah rubbish poetry. Blah blah spent £125 on trainers. Get this woman off my internet. Yeah, I could choose not to read it, but the Guardian shouldn't even be interested in publishing it - what value is this woman's writing?

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