# British newspaper gets involved in US election **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 19, 2004, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000 "2004-10-19T09:48:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![marky33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@marky33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marky33)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/1 "2004-10-19T09:48:15Z")
[Replies](http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1329728,00.html) to letters sent by Guardian newspaper readers to US voters pleading with them to vote for Kerry. Personally, I think it is a strategy liable to backfire but the replies are worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/2 "2004-10-19T09:57:46Z")
I was reading that yesterday - I love it that they’ve published some of the moronic hate mail. (It’s interesting that the assumption has been that the whole thing is a pro-Kerry plot. In fact, although it’s a left-wing newspaper, they’ve deliberately made it open for individual people to make their own points of view known, whether they’re for Kerry, Bush or even Nader.) ---
**Author:** ![Waccoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Waccoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waccoe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/3 "2004-10-19T10:05:38Z")
I never realised Americans were so toothist. ---
**Author:** ![mallocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@mallocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mallocks)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/4 "2004-10-19T10:15:41Z")
Well, I think the whole idea is horrendously arrogant, I don’t see how I or any of my “tea-sipping yellow-toothed” compatriats have any right to try to influence the vote, and the revulsion in some of the replies is, for me, understandable. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/5 "2004-10-19T10:23:25Z")
> [@Waccoe](#): > > I never realised Americans were so toothist. You didn’t? You didn’t realise that there was a neat stereo-type for every country? ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/6 "2004-10-19T10:26:52Z")
> [@mallocks](#): > > Well, I think the whole idea is horrendously arrogant, I don’t see how I or any of my “tea-sipping yellow-toothed” compatriats have any right to try to influence the vote, and the revulsion in some of the replies is, for me, understandable. Foreigners have NO right to elect anyone. We do have EVERY right to bitch and moan though. Long may we loudly exercise it. It’s all very democratic to do so. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/7 "2004-10-19T10:30:18Z")
Welcome to the Guardian America: Welcome to a special kind of hell I can think of nothing more likely to put you off voting for Kerry than getting a letter/email from a Guardianista. For those that don’t know The Guardian is read by the most up-their-own-arse, muesli munching, herbal tea drinking, vegetarian, sandals and socks wearing, Volvo driving lefty tossers known to mankind. None of them have proper jobs and all the bints have hairy legs and armpits (and yellow teeth is also a distinct possibility) “Guardian reader” really is a term of abuse in the UK. No it really is. Still as a grown-up telegraph reader I think this is a corking idea. Indeed in today’s telegraph Mark Steyn offers the editor of The Guardian a £50 bet that Bush will INCREASE his vote in Clark County. The article is on the Telegraphs site, which is a registration site. I am already registered so I bring you a few extracts: \>\>\>\> This is excellent news for the President, who in recent days had been looking a little wobbly in Ohio. But there’s nothing like a barrage of mail from condescending Guardian readers to send the locals stampeding into the Bush camp. \>\>\>\> \>\>\>\>\>The reason is advice like this, from Guardian reader Richard Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. Dawkins begins his missive to the Clark County swing voter with a little light Bushophobia: “An idiot he may be, but he is also sly, mendacious and vindictive… thuggish ideologues. pariah state. brazenly lying. cynical mendacity” yada-yada.\>\>\>\> \>\>\>\>But in Clark County I’m glad to see they’re keeping a stiff upper lip as John le Carré, Antonia Fraser and fellow sufferers of Bush Derangement Syndrome flood the mailboxes. Linda Rosicka, director of the county’s Board of Elections, thinks the rampaging Brits will have little effect. “The American Revolution was fought for a reason,” she remarked drily. That’s the spirit.\>\>\>\> ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/8 "2004-10-19T10:36:39Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > For those that don’t know The Guardian is read by the most up-their-own-arse, muesli munching, herbal tea drinking, vegetarian, sandals and socks wearing, Volvo driving lefty tossers known to mankind. None of them have proper jobs and all the bints have hairy legs and armpits (and yellow teeth is also a distinct possibility) _Yawn_ …if you read the letters page, you’ll realise that every Guardian reader knows all about the stereotype. It’s about as original as the insults in the OP’s link. ---
**Author:** ![Ithaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Ithaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ithaka)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/9 "2004-10-19T10:41:54Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > For those that don’t know The Guardian is read by the most up-their-own-arse, muesli munching, herbal tea drinking, vegetarian, sandals and socks wearing, Volvo driving lefty tossers known to mankind. None of them have proper jobs and all the bints have hairy legs and armpits (and yellow teeth is also a distinct possibility) > > “Guardian reader” really is a term of abuse in the UK. No it really is. May I humbly point out to our American friends that this is a fairly partisan viewpoint from an avowed Telegraph reader. In other words a fox-hunting, weak-lipped, boarding-school-educated, upper class nitwit. Well surely I’m allowed to sterotype too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/10 "2004-10-19T10:47:04Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > _Yawn_ …if you read the letters page, you’ll realise that every Guardian reader knows all about the stereotype. It’s about as original as the insults in the OP’s link. Of course every Guardian reader is aware of the Guardian reader stereotype, it’s conversational shorthand after all. However how many _Americans_ would know about the Guardian reader stereotype? I for example have no idea of the average reader of the Washington Post (I could hazard a guess at the average reader of Weekly World News or National Enquirer though). That’s why I explained it. I’d still get the right hump if they started trying to pursuade me to vote Labour though. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/11 "2004-10-19T10:48:37Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > I can think of nothing more likely to put you off voting for Kerry than getting a letter/email from a Guardianista. I tend to agree. It’s all very well for anti-Bush foreigners like me to wank on about it on a messageboard that actually _invites_ political debate… but receiving an unsolicited letter out of the blue from a British person instructing you how to vote? Especially one whose politics are likely to consider _Kerry_ too right-wing. Imagine if British Guardian readers started receiving unsolicited instructions from French people telling them to vote Conservative. This is gonna backfire bigtime. ---
**Author:** ![Waccoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Waccoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waccoe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/12 "2004-10-19T10:49:13Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > For those that don’t know The Guardian is read by the most up-their-own-arse, muesli munching, herbal tea drinking, vegetarian, sandals and socks wearing, Volvo driving lefty tossers known to mankind. None of them have proper jobs and all the bints have hairy legs and armpits (and yellow teeth is also a distinct possibility) Yeh, but would you really rather be a Telegraph reader? - inbred men without chins who still need strange things to hold up their socks, have to visit the barber to get a shave, are married to gin swilling women who look like horses, who still think _Punch_ is funny, get all their jokes from _Readers Digest_, like to get beaten by women dressed as their old nanny in Shepherds Market and think Boris Johnson is an intellectual. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/13 "2004-10-19T10:49:35Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > Welcome to the Guardian America: Welcome to a special kind of hell Translation: Guardian readers vote Labour. Therefore **owlstretchingtime** despises it. I’d like to add that for every insult applicable to the Guardian reader there’s a counterpart just for the Telegraph reader. They are two sides of the same grubby coin. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/14 "2004-10-19T10:49:52Z")
> [@Ithaka](#): > > In other words a fox-hunting, weak-lipped, boarding-school-educated, upper class nitwit. A fair cop all round (apart from the lips - maybe you mean the chin?) Haven’t you got some yoghurt to eat, whilst making native american macrame baskets? Bloody Guardianista raffia-mafia. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/15 "2004-10-19T10:52:30Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > Translation: Guardian readers vote Labour. Therefore **owlstretchingtime** despises it. . But they don’t all vote Labour do they - I could almost respect that. They vote Green and worse of all LIBERAL. And my God do they go on about it. I don’t even believe the football results in The Guardian BTW The Telegraph sells double that The Guardian does. ---
**Author:** ![mallocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@mallocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mallocks)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/16 "2004-10-19T10:56:31Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > BTW The Telegraph sells double that The Guardian does. That has _never_ been an indication of a quality newspaper, or if it is, the Sun is the best newspaper in the UK ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/17 "2004-10-19T10:57:19Z")
> [@Waccoe](#): > > Yeh, but would you really rather be a Telegraph reader? - inbred men without chins who still need strange things to hold up their socks, have to visit the barber to get a shave, are married to gin swilling women who look like horses, who still think _Punch_ is funny, get all their jokes from _Readers Digest_, like to get beaten by women dressed as their old nanny in Shepherds Market and think Boris Johnson is an intellectual. Have you been following me around? ---
**Author:** ![Ithaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Ithaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ithaka)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/18 "2004-10-19T10:57:47Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > BTW The Telegraph sells double that The Guardian does. And the Daily Mail and The Sun sell more than either. Your point is? ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/19 "2004-10-19T10:58:27Z")
> [@mallocks](#): > > That has _never_ been an indication of a quality newspaper, or if it is, the Sun is the best newspaper in the UK Perhaps the Guardian should think about putting birds with their thruppennies out on page 3? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000/20 "2004-10-19T10:59:35Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > But they don’t all vote Labour do they - I could almost respect that. They vote Green and worse of all LIBERAL. And my God do they go on about it. Not fair. Some of us vote for George Galloway 😛 > [@](#): > > BTW The Telegraph sells double that The Guardian does. Come on, get your facts right. It sells nearly three times as much. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-newspaper-gets-involved-in-us-election/270000.md?page=2)