Old Lad

I am a regular reader of the Daily Telegraph. Before you label me as a right wing extremist I have to say that there are many of the opinions it promulgates that I disagree with. The history behind it is that when I passed the 11 plus and went to Grammar School, my Dad decided that our daily paper should contain some good writing and so chose the Telegraph.(I also was given a subscription to The Children’s Newspaper – anyone remember that). At that time the Telegraph was published in Manchester as well as London so We had a fair share of Northern news. And by and large the writing in it was of a good standard and must have helped me because i was very good at English. However in later years the Telegraph, along with that other quality newspaper The Manchester Guardian, moved its production to London and so by and large we lost the reporting of “Up North”.

I still stick with the Telegraph because it generally has good writers but it is very London centric.

For that reason I am now convinced that in the North we live in a parallel universe! The machinations of politicians and the Greater London media bubble are of no interest to me. I don’t really care if Angela Rayner has 300 houses or who scored points of who at PM question time. And I never cease to marvel about how people in the south must be to pay the prices they do for a pint of beer! We are more interested up here about having decent railways and buses, a health service that works and less anti-social behaviour, as well as protecting the good name of the Cumberland Sausage!

The Telegraph comes into its own, however, on Saturdays when its edition includes supplements covering the arts, food, travel etc.. Invariably though much of the writing about arts and culture, restaurant reviews or other features rarely describe things north of Watford Junction. I read an article recently about the best pubs in the country -only one listed in the North! One particular feature that I always read and which is now my evidence of the different world “Down South” is entitled My Saturday. This is a column where some individual who is famous or in the public eye describes what they do on Saturday. It is often a worthy candidate for the feature called “Pseuds Corner” in Private Eye. Invariably it will describe what the person has for breakfast Consider this one: “I get the scrambled eggs going with avocado and toast with peanut butter. Sometimes I’ll do overnight porridge with chia seeds and banana”. Or this one: “I have a simple breakfast of kefir or bran flakes with dried fruit. Or an egg with really ripe organic tomatoes and rye bread together with an occasional glass of champagne”. The column then usually goes on to describe a walk in one of London’s parks and an evening dinner party with friends.

Its a far cry from my breakfast of either a bacon sandwich or a boiled egg with soldiers. Of course the other issue about becoming an Oldie is that Saturdays are much like any other day of the week (Every day is a Saturday when you retire!). Although we do have the advantage in the North of being able to watch Rugby League. For all its faults and occasional pretension I still like reading the Telegraph but I do wish we could have a bit more coverage of things of interest up here.