Who has most disappointed you?

[Calistano]

I'd say Russell T Davies when he had his drunken rant. I get his concern that lgbt is being fractured. But his absent concern for Women and their rights was palpable. I honestly thought he had more sense.

Thé Guardian, editors, staff and ahem some of their ‘star’ columnists.

I always thought they were the most intellectual and liberal of the newspapers, now they are just a woman hating, woman erasing noxious 🪰🦂🦨🐍

The guardian and the green party.

Anyone in the Harry Potter world who hasn't supported JKR. The majority of the Labour Party.

Margaret Atwood, I think.

I mean, I get it, she's an old woman and maybe Germaine Greer wouldn't have been so outspoken if she had had a very lucrative series with Hulu ongoing and a lot to lose from being cancelled.

But all the same...if anyone ought to know full well that TWANW, it's the woman who wrote the Handmaid's Tale.

I'm afraid the list is too long. I'm having a bit of an existential crisis of confidence in things, provoked by the absolute silence of so many in leading roles in society.

I really wouldn't know where to start.

Every single man who doesn't care because they think it doesn't affect them. And they don't give a shit that it really affects women. Selfish bastards.

Russell Howard the comedian. I saw him just after lockdown in Bristol. He made a derogatory comment about JK Rowling being transphobic.

I still wish I'd stood up and asked why he thought that.

So so so so disappointed in him.

Authors for me. Reading a book feels like communing with the writer to me - I think it's the only art form where I just can't separate the work from the creator. It largely seems to be American authors who fall for it, I think.

Caroline Lucas.

Oh, Philip fucking Pullman.

Ghastly man.

Graham Norton

Friends. Many of whom are actually authors, and are caught in the liberal arts bubble, but who should also be critical thinkers capable of seeing beyond superficial soundbites. Yet that's what I hear from them in lieu of any argument - 'most oppressed', 'be kind', 'culture war', 'Christian far right'. I am bitterly disappointed by their credulity and apparently wilful ignorance.

@MargotBamborough yes indeed. Pullman disappointed me years ago with his weaselly attack via His Dark Materials- build a fantasy religion without a Christ figure and pretend that you have 'exploded' Christianity. He can write, but I despise him.
Love your name!

I started a mental list; the Guardian, the Labour Party, Dara O'Briain, then I realised it was too long. When I realised I was grateful that people I genuinely admired were safely dead so they couldn't disappoint me, it makes me so sad. I'm not disappointed that they care for transpeople, I'm disappointed that they don't seem to give a toss about women and have totally lost their faculty for critical thinking. Cowards, liars and fools, all of them.

Joanne Harris, specifically with regard to her role as Chair of the Society of Authors.

Whatever her personal feelings, she ought to have put them aside and shown neutrality to those she disagreed with and offered support and help to authors under attack.

Instead, she very clearly sided with a group of bullies who were intent on hounding authors out of publishing.

The utter lack of professionalism shocked me.

Now this is a tricky one. So many people - the various Labour Party politicians, Billy Bragg, Owen Jones, assorted other Guardian journalists, numerous writers such as Philip Pullman and Margaret Atwood, comedians such as Stewart Lee and Dara O'Briain, all of the Humanist Society including Alice Roberts...

Trying to narrow it down, I'm more disappointed in women who fall for the gender-woo than men, because I don't have very high expectations of men anyway. And I'm more disappointed in people I genuinely admired rather than people I don't much care about. So while I think Philip Pullman ought to be more intelligent, it doesn't bother me that much that he isn't because I never much liked his books anyway.

So looking at it that way, probably Margaret Atwood, because she was a favourite writer and she's female. But then in her favour she hasn't been as vicious as people like Joanne Harris. She's just been a bit useless.

Same here.

David Tennant
Hozier.
The usual "most oppressed, vulnerable, blah blah" not a single thought about women and girls.

Private Eye - ripe for the picking, but nope.

Women’s Aid, The NHS, the unions.

The Labour Party, and gay men ( not all, of course) have most disappointed me.

Yes to David Tennant - what a twat he’s turned out to be.

Neil Gaiman, Alice Roberts, Margaret Atwood and Philip Pullman.

How? Why?

All of The Guardian. Arses.
Not The Observer.

Theresa May and the Conservative Party.