Goodbye to The Economist

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is to inform you that I have cancelled my Direct Debit to The Economist, due in August 2018. My customer reference number is *******.

The reason is that I am increasingly exasperated by the partisan slant of your articles, particularly on politics and culture. Instead of analysing and explaining the great changes afoot in the world (where I commend Irwin Stelzer for example), your articles are highly partisan on one side of the debate. You could be writing for the UK Liberal Party or the US Clintonite Democrats. In cultural pieces your journalists consistently indulge blank-slate, Guardian-style prejudices, offending the intelligence of your readership.

It's a shame. There are pockets of analysis in your science section and the generally excellent technology quarterly that I shall miss.

Regards, etc

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Update Saturday:  I received the following reply this morning.

Dear Mr Seel,

Customer Reference Number:-****** 

Thank you for contacting The Economist.

We are sorry to hear that we are losing a valued subscriber.

I confirm that I have cancelled your subscription on its expiry with the issue dated 25th August 2018 and no further payments will be taken. Please ensure that you also cancel the Direct Debit instruction with your bank.

We hope that you will continue to read The Economist from time to time.

Should you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards
Stefan King

The Economist subscription centre

Send the flea letter.

Good to know that The Economist AI did a close reading of my note.

SciAm - no thanks!

The heavy white clouds occlude the sky; it can't decide whether to sleet, rain or snow. In any event, snow is predicted overnight.

I am in receipt of ever more strident letters from Scientific American begging me to resubscribe and promising enticing gifts if I so do.

In fact I'm going to let SciAm go, along with their less-than-attractive bribes. The quality of the articles seems just a touch dumbed-down these days while only a minority are actually of interest to me. But perhaps the biggest irritant is that SciAm has followed New Scientist down the path of Guardian-style stance-taking. I'm in the market for the latest theories and results. I don't need SciAm's smug moral exhortation on climate change, biodiversity or any other fashionable but ultimately value-driven cause.
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I last read Dan Simmons' Hyperion novels back in 2002 and have thankfully forgotten the details. This has made rereading the first two volumes a delight.

Hyperion starts slow, as we gradually learn about the Shrike pilgrims and their back-stories. Soon we are deep into the epic struggle between the Hegemony worldweb and the 'barbarian' Ousters, subtly orchestrated by the sinister Technocore.

Brilliant characterisation, stupendous world-building, a supple and unpredictable plot, multiple storylines and an underlying transcendent theme, slowly revealed.

What's not to like?