"I never sensed they were a mouthpiece of the right wing like they are now."

At one time I would never miss an issue: those days are long gone. The difference for me was exemplified by the fact that the old Private Eye was strongly opposed to the gassing of the UK's badger population whilst the present incarnation are rather keen on encouraging it: A small issue perhaps but somewhat emblematic of the Eyes general decline in compassion.


"The decline--the rot--came when that slimy careerist was installed as editor."

-Old Private Eye pretty much ran on a principle of Noblesse oblige. That changed because Hislop was an aspiring social climber.

In the old Private Eye you could read a lot of the news as much as a couple of years before the corporate media got around to it: if they ever did. Of course they all clearly knew it was happening from the EYE but cravenly suppressed it which made them all the more culpable. It was probably my "Eye education" from the age of about 15 on that made me the sceptical barsteward I am today.