[Closed] Marina Hyde

She can't be that posh if she's named after one of BL's monstrosities

Could have been worse. Could have been Allegro.

Perhaps, despite their grand titles, her parents were big admirers of the simple charms of unreliable, inevitably brown rust buckets occasionally produced by bolshy lefties in the midlands on the rare occasions they weren’t on strike?

Could have been Allegro.

Isn't that Boris' new helper?

You don't think they named her in the same way the Beckhams named Brooklyn?

Look, I am all for levity and humour. But Hyde isn't it - at least, not for me.

Are you more of an Austin Princess kind of guy?

Are you more of an Austin Princess kind of guy?

That explains why my middle names are Triumph Herald....and the kids are called Megane and Octavia. The eldest often asks why he has a French sounding girls name

Look, I am all for levity and humour. But Hyde isn’t it – at least, not for me.

Your middle name’s ‘Ambassador’, isn’t it?

Are you more of an Austin Princess kind of guy?

Nope, still not it.

Maxi?

Maybe molgrips was conceived under a stand at a trade show where they were exhibiting exciting new adjustable gripping tools?

The less said about the genesis of @binners the better😉

My middle names are Leyland Leopard

Mine are Mini and Metro. My first name’s Beige

^^ that was my first car. A black one.

They did black ones? I thought they only did them in colours that you could accessorise with the anaglypta wallpaper in a suburban bungalow?

What was the black shade called? Satan’s Earl Grey?

What was the black shade called?

List of strike breaking scabs.

Did it come with one of them tied up in the boot?

Maybe molgrips was conceived under a stand at a trade show where they were exhibiting exciting new adjustable gripping tools?

I though mol was a Sprinter?

What was the black shade called?

List of strike breaking scabs.

😅

I can tell you what the pea green colour was called: unwanted.
I qpwas working for a marketing agency and we were running Heinz win a car a day competition. We had 50 assorted cars to give away and the admin girl was out so I was given the winners details and rang him. He was out at work so I spoke to his wife. I told her she’d won a Metro in that pea green colour. She said “any other colour available?” I said no as the car was chosen and set on a lot ready for delivery.
Said she didn’t want it then.
I gave her an out of hours contact number and sure enough hubby rang back saying he didn’t want it either in that but he could move it on for a few grand.
I sided with the wife. It was hideous.

Ah, the Morris Marina. Shit car. My mother had the estate version when I was about 11 or 12 and it was horrific. You could open the doors by thumping the door under the handle.

But, te prize for the worst car ever was the Ambassador. Truly awful. I much preferred the Rover and that says a lot.

I had an Austin Princess for some reason for a month in London. I had no idea where any of the corners where when parking it. Needed to park in front of a big plate glass window if I wanted any chance of parking close without hitting anything p.
Loved my Allegro though. Bigger engine, 5 speed box and hydrolastic pumped so hard it had the ride height of a dune buggy and only chassis flex got you round the corners.

just realised that what you're calling a Marina I'd call a Morris 1100

...good family care for the 1960s, pre child seatbelts when three of us would rattle about in the back. It was a dostoyevsky" after all. All this hard work on Marina when there's Hyde/Jekyle to go at? Maybe not.

To the haters: columnists are the lowest form of journalist, as she tweeted yesterday I think. Her current run of in my view incredible form is down to her amazement at seeing a country run by one of her breed, with predictable dire results. A certain level of bitterness isn't for everyone, but works for me...

*Theodore

My Dad bought an L-reg Marina Coupe in the late 70s... but it was the 1.8TC version!
It was very fast when it wasn't up on ramps. It looked just like this

My Leyland DAF campervan has the Perkins Prima diesel motor out of a Montego in it.
It's noisy and underpowered, but still works now, 30 years later

I hate to drag this entertaining thread back on track, but Marina Hyde's piece "How did the man with no self-control swallow the words 'Barnard Castle'?" is superb.

Now, a Leyland Barnard Castle, that would be some motor! 🤣

I enjoyed another columnist's description of Johnson's pathetic new briefing room as 'Nuremberg Radisson'.

Still, I bet they don't really give a shit what it looks like so long as the right set of mates got their slice of the £££ action.

I hate to drag this entertaining thread back on track, but Marina Hyde’s piece “How did the man with no self-control swallow the words ‘Barnard Castle’?” is superb.

Indeed....

https://twitter.com/MarinaHyde/status/1377133824975413252?s=20

And so to Johnson’s first outing in his government’s new briefing room, which I’m afraid is absolutely gopping. Not only was the previous wood-panelled location far smarter, but the party of business seems to have been completely rinsed for their £2.6m. It looks like it cost about what a leading public school would spend on the set for a sixth-form play about a man who becomes prime minister. Which I suppose is what we’re watching.

I particularly enjoyed this bit,

“Of course the prime minister follows the Nolan principles when conducting himself in public life.” OK but which Nolan – Christopher? I guess there are thematic consistencies between the prime minister and the movie director’s oeuvre. Both would very much like you to believe there’s no such thing as objective truth, and that after a while, the audience will simply lack the energy to understand or argue with what they’re watching.

It looks like it cost about what a leading public school would spend on the set for a sixth-form play about a man who becomes prime minister.

"Nuremberg Radisson"

It deserves more airtime does that particular description.

Oh she's so funny.
Well done Marina.
She's certainly brought that BoJo down a peg or two.
My only criticism is that it's so hard to read when one is guffawing so much.
Sir Alastair Edgcumbe James Dudley-Williams must be so proud.

using irony to be funny whilst making a serious point. MH makes it look easy...

Oh she’s so funny.
Well done Marina.
She’s certainly brought that BoJo down a peg or two.
My only criticism is that it’s so hard to read when one is guffawing so much.
Sir Alastair Edgcumbe James Dudley-Williams must be so proud.

^^^when clearly it's not.

Nice try copa but you are not as funny as you consider yourself to be

One of the cars of my childhood....

Nice try copa but you are not as funny as you consider yourself to be

But about as predictable.

I like her journalism in a "takes one to catch one" style. As I said on a thread a week back she's one of the reasons I still read the Guardian, along with Simon Jenkins. Unlike many above I don't considered her a homourist, sure there's a touch of often black humour and wit to lighten a dark subject but it's not comedy, I think she means it. Which is why I read it.

Too many journalists have given up on sincerity in favour of click bait, I think Marina is sincere.

As for the name I assumed it a pen name. Hyde as in Dr Jekkyl's evil side and Marina as in where posh people keep their boats. It's only this thread that has prompted me to check her name and find that Marina is real, what were they thinking?

Here's a good overview of why I don't like the Marina Hyde brand of journalism:
The strange death of British satire

I'm with copa on this. Hyde is yet another member of the cosy establishment clique making a nice living off the thing she pretends to be against. She may be humorous but is she really any better than Kuenssberg and Peston? It's basically just gossip and banter dressed up as satire. Monbiot sums up the problem quite well in this thread..

https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1366292431864528897?s=20

...is she really any better than Kuenssberg and Peston?

Unequivocally, yes.

It's all a personal thing though isn't it? Humour. Having read both articles of hers, linked to in this thread, I can't say either of them left me feeling the need to read any more of her stuff. Not funny. Not especially clever and has that whiff of someone trying just that little bit too hard. Feels a bit like the "right-on" comedy of Ben Elton from his early days - only he was quite funny.

Don't really get the mild comparison above between her and Kuenssberg and Peston. Completely different styles and purposes. Maybe I'm missing something - wouldn't be the first time 🙂

I note Hyde isn't mentioned in that article you link, Copa.

Why do I like Marina? Here's an example, what's not to like, haters?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/12/what-happened-women-uk-harassed-street

Don’t really get the mild comparison above between her and Kuenssberg and Peston.

The comparison is that like Peston and Kuenssberg, she's doing nothing more than indulging in court gossip rather than exposing or challenging politicians in any fundamental way. She's as dependent on the westminster gravy train as they are.

Nonsense. Her job is not reliant on "sources" and working relationships with those in positions of power at all. She's no more supportive of the politicians she writes about than Steve Bell is.

It's true she doesn't do investigative journalism, Dazh. That would require a research team, a network of informers beyond what you cal the "court" and a lower profile with a different persona. You're reproaching her for not being something she clearly doesn't try to be.

Most everything I've ever read by her is a personal take on stuff that's already in the public domain. If I want news that's news I'll go to Mediapart, France Bleu, Euronews, Eins Extra. If I read the Guardian it's for a mix of second-hand news from the other side of the channel that doesn't get me closing the tab after a few lines.

You’re reproaching her for not being something she clearly doesn’t try to be.

While I may be putting words into his mouth; Dazh 's complaint is that, like a lot of satire, it's really just pointing and laughing. which is at best, funny and distracting, at worst, it's funny and distracting...

So, we shouldn’t have satire, because of a lack of serious questioning investigative journalism?

I'm not at all sure why people get so exercised by her - whether they are defending or criticising. To me, she's a predictable and repetitive columnist with very little to say, but that doesn't bother me at all as I stopped reading her articles a long time ago.

Most everything I’ve ever read by her is a personal take on stuff that’s already in the public domain.

I don't think the problem is specifically her, more the way that the media works.
The people who comment on politics are generally from a similar background and live similar lives.
Not that this devalues their opinions but their views are filtered through the same kind of lens.
They will disagree. Hold a range of opinions. Some you will like and others you won't.
But the general tone is the same - a jovial, waspish ribbing, a focus on personalities and parties.
Rarely ever delving into deeper stuff - like the role of the media.

So, we shouldn’t have satire

No, just be aware that like Swift and Punch and Private Eye, it's still just posh kids mewling at other posh kids

Thanks for explaining... we never realised that.

🤷🏻

Right, I'll leave you to the class warfare and continue to enjoy reading good work by people of any background.

Daz doesn't like toffs, but he's happy defending people who vote for far right policies out of far right sympathies. Funny old world, eh?

Ms Hyde is fairly funny, but also a bit repetitive (but how can she not be given the constant stream of bullshit eminating from 'our' government). She often strays into '6th former about to leave trying to do the most offensive joke at the Leavers do' territory. But she is fine by me.

John Crace is better - he seems to have more worldliness to draw on to provide a relief from how embarrassing 'our' government are - before skewering them more cleverly.

Monbiot is a ****ing loon. If he stuck to environmental issues he is thought provoking, but he is a utopian dreamer and utterly unrealistic. His very presence gives the powers that be the 'get out of jail free' card of dismissing more serious writers (Jenkins, Behr, D'Ancona etc.) as being 'associated with a newspaper that employs lunatics like George Monbiot'.

George and his ilk need to stop wishing we could all just start again with a pristine planet and engage in the practical here and now.

just posh kids mewling at other posh kids

agreed, and I've also a bit of an allergy to this. But it's possible that Marina Hyde is right at the top of her game right now for precisely this reason: it takes one to know one and she sees a chancer one joke columnist 'running' the country whose credentials relate to straight bananas. What you take from that's up to you, quite a bit of entertainment and possibly faux in group nodding recognition in my case that times have changed and this really isn't right.