Posts

Bye bye, Viz

Here is the letter I wrote to Viz announcing that I was cancelling my subscription: Dear Viz Well, that’s it, I’ve cancelled my direct debit to Viz. After reading it for nearly 40 years and being a subscriber for around 20 years, I’m off. I own virtually every issue since 1986 onwards. I have several Viz annuals, one signed (and drawn in) by the main contributors. I have a Viz mug.  Why am I off? It’s not necessarily that you’re not funny any more – although strips like Mrs Brady Old Lady long ago lost their pizzaz and are now like chewing through tough gristle – it’s that, like Private Eye in recent years, you’ve become part of the centrist dad, liberal-left, Remainery, PC, metropolitan, globalist, tedious, annoying establishment. You still haven't got over Brexit! Viz signing off X (Twitter) to move to 'safe space' Blue Sky was the last straw for me. The warning signs have been flashing for years, inside and outside the mag. The tweets your creatives put up on X (o...

Is this why Britain is failing?

I work for a company in England that has offices in different countries, including the US. It is a media company. I suspect it’s a fairly typical medium-sized corporation. In this post I will run down some of the things it has done in 2024 – though I could have gone further back (things started changing around 2018, with HR becoming ‘People & Culture’ and then got turbo-charged from 2020 onwards). I’m not saying that all of these things are bad things. Some are quite nice. They are not all ‘woke’. But many are. And taken together they suggest that many British companies in 2024 are perhaps not as focused on their core product as they might be. Valentine’s Day treasure hunt On 14 February, objects were hidden around the office for employees to seek out. First prize was a M&S voucher and there was a gift for all entrants. A decade or so ago you used to be able to secretly send a saucy message to an object of your affection, but this has long since ceased. Red Nose Day As ...