Friday 21 May 2010

Quotes of the Week

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear after Johnston Press claimed it did not directly employ journalists: “Johnston Press plc closed the group-wide pension scheme. Johnston Press plc imposed the group-wide pay freeze. Johnston Press plc imposed the group-wide introduction of the ATEX content management system. Yet Johnston Press plc has worked hard to ensure that under the anti-trade union laws, we are forced to have a dispute not with it, but with each and every one of its wholly owned subsidiaries. It is patently unfair and the law is an ass."

Gary Lineker on quitting the
Mail on Sunday over its Lord Triesman story: "There's a good sports section at the Mail on Sunday and I've enjoyed working with them but I'm in a position where quitting the role is the right thing to do. As an ambassador of the 2018 bid I would desperately love the World Cup to come to this country, but this story has damaged our chances and I'd be hypocritical to continue to earn money from writing a column in that paper."

Francis Beckett on the Lord Triesman affair: "Before we laugh too loudly at Triesman's misfortune, ask whether we want to live in a world populated by slimeballs like Melissa Jacobs, where before we relax over a meal with a friend, we have to frisk them for hidden microphones."

Janet Street-Porter on depression in the Daily Mail: "I find something very slightly repellent about this recent epidemic of middle-class breast-beating. This tidal wave of analysis about why 'having it all' isn't what it was cracked up to be. Why daily life is a series of disappointments. Why sufferers feel empty and suicidal. Get a grip, girls! From actresses like Emma Thompson to authors like Marian Keyes and even Mail journalists like Allison Pearson and Liz Jones - they've all got it. Low self-esteem, anxiety, plus a mountain of unspecified worries."

Sir Ray Tindle on the strength of weekly newspapers: They’ve been though at least half-a-dozen recessions including the great slump in the Twenties and Thirties, and they’ve been through the World Wars of the Kaiser and Hitler. One even survived Napoleon."

Vintage quote of the Week: Keith Waterhouse, reprised by the Guardian this week: "Brighton looks like a town that is constantly helping the police with their enquiries".

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