I read it cover-to-cover from 1983 until about ten years ago. Its cartoons, like the one posted by Tomski at 2:33 pm, were unrivalled, as were its literary reviews, Street of Shame, anything by Craig Brown, Paul Foot, etc. Yes, they had Auberon Waugh, but he had the saving grace of being funny as well as nasty. Yes, they targeted "Red Ken" and that guy Derek from Liverpool, but I never sensed they were a mouthpiece of the right wing like they are now.

The decline--the rot--came when that slimy careerist was installed as editor. A few gems remained---Craig Brown and the cartoonists---but the "journalists" that polisH brought in were a rum lot: especially the smug and complacent Francis Wheen.