is this the worst and most self-absorbed piece of journalism ever written? (most amusing)

[whensantagotstuckupAITCHimney]

Without a word of a lie, this was printed in The Evening Standard the other day after the tornado. A friend of mine has picked it up and thinks it's worth celebrating in all its pompous, un-self-aware, London meeja whore bourgeois pig awfulness. it's not a piss-take. really it isn't.

"My tornado hell. This is to celebrate and remember the excellent article by freelance writer Caroline Phillips from the Evening Standard. When it was printed is irrelevant, the point is to keep it alive forever, long after the last landfill has rotted away, we are all dust, and your children's children's children may revel in the words contained herein." here

let's not be fair, jackieno. she's a turd in fine jewels, she doesn't deserve it.

Yes, it is SO materialistic and greedy. Revolting.

no, I reckon she did a few different ones (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

It is a brilliant piss-take of herself you have to say.

I still maintain that it's been done for the google ad hits - if someone had just wanted to share it they'd have written "hey look what I just read in the standard" and linked to it or just typed out choice bits. They wouldn't have written it as if it was them.

The typos and the fact that it's a direct copy from the newspaper says to me that it isn't the journo responsible putting it up on the net - for one thing it's a serious breach of copyright.

And just because it's published in a newspaper, doesn't mean it can't be a big bag of shite wind up - the sad fact is that more people write in to complain about an article than they do to agree with it. So an article which generates lots of complaints and derision will naturally be seen as more "successful".

Yes, as I was typing 'to be fair' I was thinking 'But why should we?' .

And I'm with you MI. . .my "sanctuary" is a squalid mess. So I can't even begin to relate.

but MI, i presume you can write...

i WILL NOT TOLERATE anyone being nice to this crapulous woman. it's my thread... i'll get it deleted if necessary.

rubberduck, i have explained the provenance. you are wrong.
there are plenty of people who saw it in the standard, it was not published as a piss-take.

just because it was published, doesn't mean it wasn't a piss take though

and if anyone could be bothered finding a link to the standard then we could stop using my friend's link. it was his pal who typed it out, as i have explained.

Rubberduck, I read it in the standard. It is not a blog, it is not a pisstake.

LOL at "crapulous woman"

WHY exactly would the Evening Standard publish a double-spread piss-take with photos the day after a tornado hits Kensal Rise?
Private Eye, yes. Evening Standard, no. anyway, it's completely consistent with all her other writing, available online.

Gah, of course it isn't a pisstake. What, a najor local paper sees this big and horrible event has happened with people made homeless, including very old people, so publishes a strange feature to make fun of them, without even making clear it is a satire? Of course not! Caroline Phillips writes like this all the time. It happened to her house. What's not to believe?

D'you know, I've just re-read it and there are two toddlers she passes over, as well as the baby, and also a bloke who'd survived the Hatfield rail crash (the film or ad bloke, can't face re-reading it). As well as a woman of 90. And the bloke with schizophrenia.

If I were writing such a piece I kind of hope I'd mention these in a bit more detail. Not just for the humanity angle but because they're the story, in many ways.

They're a bit blurry, but I've just taken 2 digital pics of this feature to prove it exists (am a bit stressed, this is the first time I've wrestled with the d-camera, but needs must). The gist is definitely gettable -- as is headstand.
I could email it to someone more competant, could it go in member profiles?

I don't think it even reads as a pisstake tbh. There are plenty of people this odious, the trendy districts of London are crawling with 'em. A pisstake wouldn't have been half as funny.

yes, exactly, she always writes in that sort of style - the 'come on take the piss out of me' style

if you google her name and tornado, you can see that if it is a pisstake then it's one that reuters, cnn, the bbc, the guardian, the indy etc etc etc all got taken in my as they've all quoted her.

MI, are you mad? caroline is the story... will we get updates on her dealings with lark insurance services? i do hope so.

Dateline Claridges... a refugee speaks...

Blimey. She seems to have been so shaken by the event that she has simply had to rush out and speak to every newspaper and news organisation bar Pig-Breeders' Weekly.

No, don't think a man could ever write it, not even as a piss-take. I mean, I had to google Cath Kiston or whatever her name is.

very disappointed in her neighbours house on the news just now - not a sign of polished plaster or floating shelves..

as someone who was nearly no longer, she had to speak to them to confirm her very vitality... or something like that. i think the genius that is craig brown could copy her style, but no other man on earth.

The only thing that heartens me about this whole stupid thing is that her husband adrian is 'between jobs' as it were. As should she. the Evening Standard is odious.

pmsl doyouwantfries...