Leave Jane alone
I was stunned to read a spiteful article about former Reading East MP Jane Griffiths in the Reading Chronicle (22 December 2005).
The story by the paper’s news team, From Blair babe to the Baltics - Jane heads East, concerned Jane’s departure to Latvia to embark on a teaching career. It had a nasty tone, and was not at all funny. These were the opening paragraphs:
BITTER and broke, former Reading East MP Jane Griffiths is departing these fair shores to bring democracy and good fiscal practice to millions of new EU citizens.
Whether the good people of Latvia are ready for this is something else.
The closing paragraph of the article was the following:
But with a Baltic Air flight taking off from Heathrow for Riga at 10.40am tomorrow (Friday), the Chronicle wishes Jane “bon voyage”. Although, given her current financial predicament, the £9.19 Ryanair service might be more within her budget.
After the article, “helpful hints” on Latvia were provided (despite that Jane is a former GCHQ linguist and BBC Foreign News Editor). This factfile contained helpful information such as, er, the Latvian national anthem and the admission price for the Riga Museum of Horns and Antlers.
This is bad journalism that should not have appeared in the Reading Chronicle.
Matt Brady on December 28th 2005 in Culture
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Gavin Whenman responded on 28 Dec 2005 at 9:04 pm #
…And might have been a result of Jane’s disgraceful treatment of the media during her time in office, including the threat of a lawsuit against a student newspaper.
Joff responded on 29 Dec 2005 at 4:58 pm #
Ms. Griffiths is possibly one of the rudest people I have ever met. Latvia are welcome to her!