To find Take A Break magazine quite startlingly political these days?

[SolidGoldBrass]

In a good way, I mean. Most of the other proleporn mags (and yes, they are a guilty pleasure of mine and have been for years) rather deserve the derision heaped on them, but TaB has run some quite interesting campaigns in the past, such as the one about Food Deserts (poor areas where there was almost no access to fresh food ie just a few corner shops selling tinned crap, no street market, and supermarkets miles away with little or no public transport access). Currently they are running one for Housewives' Holiday basically a campaign to shame lazy selfish cocklodgers into pulling their weight domestically....
And the most recent one which I found remarkably shocking and sad. They have published (with permission of course) a selection of 'farewell letters' from soldiers killed in Afghanistan/Iraq. And someone has taken the editorial decision to publish those letters exactly as they were written, and they are frighteningly illiterate. Whether this indicates that the education system is in a far worse state then I thought, or whether it shows that a disproportionate amount of seriously struggling young men end up in the army, I do not know, but I can't quite get that out of my head.

[QuintessentialShadows]

Sounds interesting SGB. I havent read TaB (bella, or my weekly) since I was a student, and found they were all mostly writing about people with weight issues, and affairs.

[moondog]

Blimey
That's genuinely the most interesting piece of info I have heard for a while.

[HecatesTwopenceworth]

Yes. they're doing that one on social workers as well, aren't they?

And didn't they do that one on nursing care for the elderly?

[HecatesTwopenceworth]

re the letters - How very sad they were. Your first thought is how awful these poor kids are now dead. But since you mention it, yes, many of those poor lads couldn't string a sentence together. Terrible failure of the education system.

[SolidGoldBrass]

Yes, the thing on social workers is fascinating as well.
Quint, most of the other ones (Up Your arse Street, Full House etc) are still about weight issues, burning down hubby's mistress' house and My Baby Was Born with Three Heads, but TaB does seem to have this interesting agenda going on.

(I remember reading somewhere else that one of these mags had a special offer: Free DNA Test Kit for Every Reader, what does that tell you about the target audience? And the minds of the people who are selling it to them?)

[OrmIrian]

Is it a mistake?

[HecatesTwopenceworth]

and they're doing that thing about putting mums in touch with one another. that's TAB isn't it? take-a-chum, or mum chums or something. They started that one as a piece on post natal depression and isolation and went on to put mums in touch with one another.

and their ongoing mothers for justice thing. that's the csa thing.

and mums army against anti-social behaviour.

They're getting quite different from the "I fell in love with my brother, now we've having twins" articles of some of the others.

(I still buy them though )

[tethersend]

I am a long standing fan of TaB- I used to buy it for the brainwaves roadshow (When going to the toilet at night, keep one eye closed so that one eye is used to the dark when you go back to bed- genius), and have always been a fan of the whimsical heartwarming stories interposed with double page spreads of the most horrific medical conditions in full colour.

It has taken on a political agenda recently, and this is undoubtedly a good thing; I'm a little unsure about the Turkish angle it has adopted, but it has piqued my interest. I think it needs to be careful it doesn't turn into a witch hunt though.

I still play 'in time' bingo though... every article contains this phrase when written in the first person, and if you can guess where in the article it will arise before you read it, you can award yourself points.

It's quite possible that I need to get out more.

[saltyseadog]

That's a long time to be keeping one eye closed tethersend.

Seriously though, it is heartening to read that TaB is challeging the norm of trash 'proleporn'(love that phrase).

[Villette]

This is interesting but it rather confirms what I suspected. I remember reading about a campaign to send boxes of treats to soldiers out in Afghanistan and the article made the point that some soldiers never get parcels from home. It literally brought tears to my eyes.

Poor sods. From a background where no-one cares about them and a shit education. No wonder they will risk being killed or maimed just to have a sense of belonging.

Sorry. Rant over. I'd be interested to see what TAB is running on social workers.

[hatesponge]

I think it's good that a fairly mainstream mag is raising these types of issues.

I haven't read TaB for years - think the last time I skimmed a copy a while back in the Drs surgery (found it lurking under the Hello & Good Housekeeping!) they were featuring the Food Deserts which I found really interesting - how do people eat healthily without easy access to shops selling fresh fruit & veg?

The soldier thing sounds sad, but not surprising. I used to work in an office where most people were aged 18-25. Even those who had been to uni often couldn't spell and had little concept of grammar. The others were even worse. It's quite a scary indictment of our educational system - especially when compared to my peers, who left school 20 years ago, even the least educated of whom seem to be able to write in coherent, correctly constructed sentences.

also at the soldiers getting no parcels from home. How sad to be so far from home, in such a scary situation & feel alone. Especially thinking that many are in their teens, only a few years older than my DS.

[GirlsAreLOud]

I used to work in a call centre with a lovely young lad who wanted to be a fireman. He was told when he applied (age about 19) to come back in a few years when he had some more life experience.

He ended up joining the Army and last I heard of him he had been seriously wounded in Afghanistan

[preciouslillywhite]

at proleporn and cocklodger