Icy blasts from experts in warm offices

IN comfortable offices where the temperature hovers at 76F and the aroma of fresh coffee hangs in the air like the scent of hay on a May breeze, men and women who have never held a shovel in their hands are furiously hammering keyboards and pouring bile on the people who keep this country moving

Guardian unveils DIY interview concept

ANDREW Sparrow invites Guardian readers to send in their questions, which he will then put to Menzies Campbell. He asks candidly:

Light relief? Nah . . .

THE Guardian thinks it can get away with headlines like this because it is written by people who are up themselves for people who are also up themselves. The product is, therefore, up itself to about tonsil level . . .

All man and shirt

DAVID MILIBAND quit frontline politics yesterday and faced the press outside his London home. The fact he wore a shirt and a pair of trousers to stand on his doorstep caused consternation at the Guardian and the Daily Mirror. This was Miliband appearing before them without his usual razor-sharp suit and “perfectly-knotted” tie. Nothing else for it but to wheel out the fashion experts. Trouble is, they can’t agree on a single point . . .

People in ice houses . . .

THE Daily Express must have thought it was on firm ice this morning when it splashed on a story about scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change being criticised by the InterAcademy Council. This was just up the Express’ street, allowing it to continue fostering its readers’ belief that global warming was created by Tony Blair as an excuse to raise taxes

The Taxpayers’ Alliance: Crusade or cancer?

BRITAIN is under attack. Our culture, our way of life, our institutions, our democracy – all are being threatened. But don’t look for bombs. Don’t blame those whose religion may be at odds with your own. Don’t look at immigrants, foreign food or the colour of people’s skin. Don’t look towards the frontiers of Iran and North Korea, or to the ever-increasing power of China. Because the threat comes from within. And it is sinister, manipulative and destructive . . .

Bakery fire. Readers rise to the occasion

NEVER let it be said that there’s nothing to laugh about in a bakery fire – especially if it’s the very bakery where only weeks earlier the leader of the Conservative Party delivered a speech that was broadcast to the nation. Here’s the Guardian headline from the time:

Telegraph gets teeth into a story

HE was famous for saying, among lots of other things, it is always better to jaw jaw than to war war. Now part of Winston Churchill’s jaw jaw – his hand-crafted upper set apparently – is to be auctioned

Haway the pink lads

HADLEY FREEMAN, who describes herself in the Guardian with more than a certain degree of authority as a fashion expert, replies to a letter from Mike from Liverpool about TV football pundits wearing black button-down shirts . . .

Most contrived headline of the day

FROM the Guardian, June 8, 2010: