Excellent, very good read!

It seems Anto mightn't be able to take a joke given that his ire at that paper was invoked by a rather funny piece run in the Squinter column referring to him as a mad doctor.

Having said that, the ensuing spat between the two individuals has been hilarious.

I don't agree that Newt is better writer than Livingstone - the former can be a bit too clever clever for his own good, but can certainly skewer the pompous, the dour, the surly and the bigoted with some marvellous satire.

Livingstone can conjure up a scene very effectively, whether that scene happened yesterday or twenty years in the past - and he, too, can effectively point up the contradictions and hypocrisy that plague this country - being particularly good at lampooning the more useless members of the local press pack.

There's no doubt The Blanket is a refreshing read, but sadly it seems too obssessed with Sinn Fein and the sometimes valid and important issues it raises tends to get obscured by the sound of axes being ground.

Perhaps this is as good a time as any to revisit the similarly amusing article by Eamon Lynch... http://www.eamonlynch.com/work18.htm

I don't know how to make it a live link.

Are you out there Lynch?
NFF

It's sad to see an article which claims to be about humour displaying such unfunny bitterness towards an individual. It is a childish piece dragging up an old story for no apparent reason. In fact it looks like the tribute to the Portadown News was just a hook on which to hang a nasty pointless vendetta.

Have to say that it’s a sad to see Newtons hilarious vehicle of deliciously irreverent bad taste discontinued. I wonder how he felt when continuously “ faced with the sour faced devotees of the world's premier peace process”?

(As opposed to the stern, dour peace process devotee knocker perhaps?)

On the subject of man not ball :

“The words of Frank Leahy seem appropriate: 'egotism is the anaesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”

Wonder how the sedative qualities of that particular anaesthetic work on the sour grapes, bitterness and resentment of mediocre internet commentary?

bizarre article - you can almost smell the bile from macca over livingstone. starts off very good and just descends into a rant. all very narcissitic.

"Livingstone can conjure up a scene very effectively, whether that scene happened yesterday or twenty years in the past "

Or at all

Livingstone is a much better writer than Emerson. In fact, Emerson seems to be lost in his columnist role- better at the small fry wit of his admittedly often-funny website.

McIntyre once again exposes himself as a bitter, twisted dissident, reduced to the role of rebel without a cause- armed with a website to prove it.

!

Jo,

You have been less than scrutable with your !

I don't think there's any other response possible to the claim that Livingstone is a better writer than Emerson other than a !

Dear Doctor Anto

I saw this and thought of you:

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain.. and most fools do."
Dale Carnegie

Eire Og,

I had to do some research after reading your comparison of the writings of Emerson and Livingstone. The problem I had was that I knew Newton Emerson had editted the Portadown News, but I thought Ken Livingstone was the Mayor of London. Turns out he is ROBIN Livingstone and he edits the Andersontown News (but you knew that).

I was unable to make a fair comparison of the two authors because the only writing by R. Livingstone I can find is the one about the England/Northern Ireland soccer game. Is that one of his better pieces? Are there others you could point me to?

Please note, I am in the United States and do not have your local newspapers on my newsstand. Thanks in advance.

I don't know who the better writer is, but it's easy seen who the biggest sneak is.