BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN

I never much liked The Guardian. I’ve always found it jam-packed with hypocritical nonsense, frankly. However, I do admit that once in a while a decent article or scoop appears in its pages and I hold nothing against those jottings on cricket by the estimable Vic Marks.

I began to distrust the “Grauniad” when I dated an American feminist a long time ago who used to leave The Guardian hanging around the flat we shared on Gloucester Terrace. I recall her leaving a Guardian supplement in the bathroom with “Why Women No Longer Need Men” as the by-line on its cover, which somehow found itself shredded into cat litter for her volatile, man-hating pussy Sojourner (I kid you not).

Needless to say, I’ve never bought and will likely never buy The Guardian. That feminist girlfriend and I are no longer an item (I wish her and her partner Jenny all the best for her new life in San Francisco). So, when this week I received this begging letter from Editor-at Large of The Guardian, Gary Younge, I was simultaneously drawn back to mixed memories of Gloucester Terrace and perked up by the fact that The Guardian is passing around the begging bowl to all and sundry. Would we actually miss The Guardian at all if it went under?

Younge’s letter is something of an embarrassment for such a haughty newspaper. Talk of “fearless, independent journalism holding the powerful to account” is not something I’d associate with The Guardian any more than I would with Metro. “Bigoted rhetoric transgressing the boundaries of acceptable political discourse” is pure projection – The Guardian is replete with bigoted rhetoric and hardly of sound mind to determine the truth of what is acceptable given its recent history of treachery and promoting leftist ideologies which currently wreak havoc in countries like Venezuela.

The truth is that Alan Rusbridger, when he was Guardian Editor, stumbled on the Edward Snowden story and published it with complete disregard for the security of numerous operatives – some working in some very dangerous places. In August 2013, Rusbridger took the decision to destroy hard drives containing information leaked to The Guardian by Snowden, rather than comply with a government demand to hand over the data.

I don’t especially recall The Guardian holding any powerful people to account who actually merited it – just an endless slew of depressing articles and smears peddling Marxist myths, scary delusions about Ed Miliband becoming the next Prime Minister and the dreadful columnist multi-millionaire Polly Toynbee being given a platform along with the likes of other Britain-hating wrong’uns like Seamus Milne, John Pilger and Frank Furedi.

The Guardian, to me, has always been a monarchy-hating, bigoted, socialist rag, which could never survive in the marketplace were it not for financial support from – hypocrisy klaxon – its previously well-endowed offshore Trust.

Guido Fawkes has been impressively determined in his exposing the utter hypocrisy that is the “tax dodging Scott Trust which the Guardian uses. They put their assets in the Caymans, and they used a Luxembourg tax shell designed by Price Waterhouse Coopers to funnel cash flows beyond the reach of HMRC. They previously blamed the difficult economic environment for committing the sins for which they condemn others. This isn’t just hypocrisy, this is an insult to us all. The Guardian’s entire heritage is one of tax dodging, the original founding Scott Trust was itself a tax dodge. They have year after year avoided tens of millions of taxes…”

I have since deleted Gary Younge’s email and unsubscribed from his mailing list but his messages still seem to appear in junk alongside letters from Prince Ogubugu wishing to share his fortune with me and offers for herbal Viagra from Vietnam.

Seeing that the Guardian is seeking to slash £54m in costs – after a review of its finances found that, at its current rate of spending, it could burn though its £758m trust fund in less than a decade – gives us all hope for the final car crash of this poison-spewing, old rag.

If you want to read The Guardian, go ahead. We have a free press (for now). But, trust me, you’re better off avoiding its depressing tales and bigotry at a time when Britain needs writing up not writing down. If you really want to read The Guardian then the best way to read it is on Twitter @SoMuchGuardian – an account run by ingenious Ben @ScrewLabour :

Personally, I’ll be staying away from The Guardian in future. Just as I don’t watch RT and avoid that newspaper-turned-blog The Independent. In my opinion the late Sojourner used it well.