Irish Times letters page

I suppose immediate capitulation to your adversaries does still count as "anti-war".

Russia is a bit of a divisive topic for both left and right from what I see.

"The left" in parts like Russia on the basis that they're so hostile to the west, and those who hate the west must be good in their eyes. There's also a bit of a hangover from Soviet days, like in Germany where the political parties who were most open to cooperation with the USSR in the Cold War are still the most enthusiastic for appeasing Russia now. Others take an opposite view and dislike Russia because of their human rights record, lack of freedoms, support for right wing groups abroad etc.

On "the right" you have the traditionalists who hate Russia because of the threat they pose to US dominance and to a lesser extent for their disregard for rules and the international order. While others on the right love Russia because they see it as the last bastion of Christendom and non-PCness compared to the west. The idea of having a strongman leader and carving other nations up into "spheres of influence" resonates with many of the Fox News set.

He should have gone all in on the pun and went with “Much ado about putting”.

It's as if they had this big bit of white space on the page due to some sort of glitch that they needed to fill and a few in the office came up with this and stuck it in with a fictitious name.

Sadly the Irish Times letters is no longer an outlet for the vain who want to have their opinion stand out amongst the others in the comment, since the IT removed the comment section. Thus providing their paying customers no other option to but the absolutely antiquated "letters page".

Removal of the comment section is undoubetdly bad for business in the sense of having more paid subscribers, but if you realise that the IT is more useful as a mouthpiece of those with power, the removal of any questioning or critique of the narrative, then it was inevitable.

Many times I have seen opinion pieces by members of the establishment & vested interests get comprehensively torn asunder in the comments. Big shout out to Fin Facts for crunching numbers when needed.

Indeed these opinion piece writers would not dare comment below the line themselves, instead linking their published piece to the IT from their Twitter where they would engage in a back slapping session with those that are friendly or financially linked to them, and block anyone else.

Unlike other comment sections which are filled with the stupid, the uninformed and the down right abusive, locking comments to paid subscribers meant the IT had a higher standard, and yes it did need moderation and some censorship but otherwise it provided the masses with much needed discussion on what "opinion" they were presented with, often by people they pay taxes to!

I have 2 gripes (at least for starters)

1. Some people have letters publiched practically every week, and they are not necessarily all that good. Whats the record for the number in a week from one individual?
2. Letters signed by anything from 5 to 55 of the "great and the good", usually of a leftish persuasion. The last dreadful one was a call of a ceasfire in Ukraine, with very little appreciation of the grom realities attaching to this.

Nobody really knows. The IT used to sell about 100K copies a day back about ten years ago. It was struggling to sell around 50K a day before COVID. The IT is just a provincial viewspaper with delusions of grandeur. Fewer people buy a daily newspaper these days. As for the Letters page, it is just people trying to get the equivalent of a pat on the head from the mediocrity.

Regards...jmcc

Hope I can just piggyback onto this thread to say I always find it strange that the IT can put up the price of its paper without making any comment on it.

The Saturday edition went up 20 cents not a huge amount tbf but always think it's strange that they never announce any change in the price.