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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To really, really hate Toby Young

232 replies

MargaretCavendish · 04/01/2018 13:24

So, yes, I'm an academic and I think Toby Young was a crap choice for his new job (as does just about anybody who knows anything about it). But it has also just reminded me of the depth of my hatred for him - I think he is the person who I most hate in the world, which is unreasonable really, given he isn't actually a mass murderer or genocidal dictator. But... is it? IABU to think that Toby Young is the world's most odious twat?

OP posts:
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Original poster
MargaretCavendish · 04/01/2018 14:54

Hurrah, this is what I wanted - a thread of Toby Young mutual loathing! I was worried at the start that I was going to get pages and pages of people telling me I was a terrible person because I clearly genuinely thought TY was worse than Hitler...

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doubleshotespresso · 04/01/2018 14:59

I am with twitchy

He is an odious, overly-entitled, badly-behaved at best idiot and represents everything I detest about this jobs for the boys government.

Aside from which he is barely qualified for this hugely influential and significant role which I suppose once again reinforces my view of the Tories.

Utterly depressing shite

BashStreetKid · 04/01/2018 15:04

I first saw Toby Young in a TV programme about his campaign for free schools years ago. I knew nothing about him so was totally open-minded, and if anything was disposed to be favourable to him as someone who actually took an interest in education. Within 10 minutes of the beginning of the programme I was thinking "What an arrogant, selfish arsehole", and I have to say nothing I have seen of him subsequently has led me to change that opinion.

elisaveta · 04/01/2018 15:13

Ah - ok. So the original commentator was saying that she had used up five boxes of Kleenex crying over the dying children, and TY then pointed out he'd used up the same number but not by crying. So it doesn't necessarily mean he was actually watching the programme. Something of a relief. But still a bloody inappropriate and insensitive response. Pretty vile actually.

ferntwist · 04/01/2018 15:18

YANBU. He’s an idiot who can’t control his mouth and is totally unsuitable for high office.

My exDP’s friend was at school with him and apparently he used to go home every lunchtime to wank off in front of porn videos and invite people to come with him. Just as an aside, thought I’d mention it.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 04/01/2018 15:20

Here are some more samples of his 'caustic wit'. Does no one at No. 10 do any positive vetting any more? And how can he think that deleting 50000 tweets removes all trace of them? Every single one has undoubtedly already been screenshotted and archived. The man's a fool as well as an arsewipe.

To really, really hate Toby Young
elisaveta · 04/01/2018 15:22

Eww - there's his comment at comic relief in the top left hand corner.

Original poster
MargaretCavendish · 04/01/2018 15:25

Does no one at No. 10 do any positive vetting any more?

Why bother vetting when you're just employing your mates anyway?

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MynewnameisKy · 04/01/2018 15:25

Hate is a strong word but when someone posts something like this on twitter. Actually mate, I had my dick up her Ass

it's incredibly difficult to think they are the appropriate person to oversee University reform.

Theworldisfullofidiots · 04/01/2018 15:26

I'm a chair of governors of a primary school. I put in loads of my time for free. I dont seek publicity or thanks.
What I would like is funding along the lines of a free school. We even looked into whether we could close and re open as a free school.
(

squoosh · 04/01/2018 15:31

He's a foul creature. There's something about Toby Young and Giles Coren that really get my hackles up.

Probably because they're people of moderate talents who've been pandered to to a ridiculous degree because they're white middle class men with influential daddies.

ferntwist · 04/01/2018 15:32

Surely now all these tweets are coming out he can’t hang onto the job?

Theworldisfullofidiots · 04/01/2018 15:35

Ermmm.
Boris is still there, Mark Garnier is still there..
I think it might be a prerequisite.

WitchesHatRim · 04/01/2018 15:36

Does no one at No. 10 do any positive vetting any more?

Not just no10 if you look at all political parties who have been caught out for tweets.

squoosh · 04/01/2018 15:37

Even if he does hang on his appointment will be forever referred to as an example of someone who got the job due to cronyism rather than being qualified for the post.

I was very interested to discover this week that Young's father was the man to coin the phrase 'meritocracy'. That's whatcha call irony, folks!

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 04/01/2018 15:46

He must have been a sad disappointment to his father, who really was a clever and influential man, from the little I know about him. Founded or helped to found Which? and the Open University, amongst innumerable other socially useful ventures. Involved in establishing the Welfare State when he was head of the Policy Unit in the Labour Party. Co-wrote Family and Kinship in East London. I read a second-hand Pelican edition of that many years ago and found it fascinating and thought-provoking. The authors looked at the very close-knit communities in the East End which were broken up after the war because of rehousing. No effort was made to keep family groups together and the effects on family relationships, women's ability to get back to work after having children, care of the elderly and so on was immense.

I interpret TY's life as one massive adolescent thumb-to-nose to his father's legacy.

UpABitLate · 04/01/2018 15:47

"sticking your dick up someone's skirt"

Arse. He joked about sticking his dick up a female colleagues arse.

ferntwist · 04/01/2018 15:49

Well said Gasp0de. I thought that too about his father - at first I couldn’t believe they were related.

Original poster
MargaretCavendish · 04/01/2018 15:51

I interpret TY's life as one massive adolescent thumb-to-nose to his father's legacy.

To be fair, I read that his father - who had six children by three different wives - was a pretty dreadful father, so he probably does feel quite conflicted about being in his shadow. But he's 54, so he really should be past the stage of doing things just because they would have pissed off daddy. In general, he appears to be in a complete state of arrested development.

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WitchesHatRim · 04/01/2018 15:54

He must have been a sad disappointment to his father, who really was a clever and influential man

Doesn't make him a good father however.

Moussemoose · 04/01/2018 15:55

"To be fair"

Errrrr why? Man's a cunt.

And a Tory.

KC225 · 04/01/2018 15:57

He's not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. Not by a fraction. A friend recommended his book about being in New York, I thought less of the friend for it. Its wasn't clever or funny. He is a pathetic dullard, and Julie Burchill wannabe.

Gacapa · 04/01/2018 16:00

Grade A charmless loser. Everything I hate in a man rolled into one big package of bell end.

BerkInBag · 04/01/2018 16:01

YANBU. He's an awful little man.

paddlingwhenIshouldbeworking · 04/01/2018 16:01

I didn't know anything about his father so went to wikipedia find out who he was.

First para of TY's wiki page says 'he has personally edited his own wiki page over 200 times'. He is a classic example of privilege and connections over actual substance, achievement and strengths.