The New Observer ‘the enemy of nonsense’ but lacks really useful knowledge
The first edition of the Observer under the ownership of Tortoise appeared on 27th April.
I’ve been reading the paper since the 1960s. As the Editor in Chief James Harding notes it’s a ‘progressive, liberal and internationalist’ voice. I think that more or less sums up how I’ve seen the paper down the years. Not socialist or of the left but certainly not on the right. After all the media in the UK is predominantly on the right, hard right and far right. Reference GB News, the Telegraph, the Mail, the Excess etc etc.
Harding also quotes some longer thoughts from a previous Editor David Astor which revolve around liberal values (again there is a shortage of supply in the UK- liberal does not mean Liberal, think rather of a liberal education).
There are some interesting pieces. For example an article on the increasing noise in restaurants in the Food Monthly read well to me (perhaps Ed Davey could take action).
Was there any nonsense? Well unfortunately there was. Nick Clegg droning on about the EU and a lengthy and rather uncritical piece on Lord Glasman of Blue Labour who certainly does not stand for the values James Harding outlines.
In fact Harding notes that the Observer is the Sunday paper you can read all week. Indeed so, because it has the feel of a magazine as much as a paper.
The NUJ Chapel at the Guardian and Observer took strike action on the plan to sell the paper to Tortoise and Private Eye reports that only a minority of journalists transferred. Frankly it shows.
So really useful knowledge in the first issue (i.e insights into what ‘their side’ are up to- for that read the FT) is in short supply. Even so I hope the new Observer manages to continue because the great moving right show of the UK media is bad for democracy. On this evidence the Observer is not moving right. Its more or less where it has been in the seven decades I’ve been reading it.
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