Life, the Universe and Everything

Each day on the Guardian’s leader column there is a short article entitled ‘In praise of…’ This week has seen such diverse examples of prise going to the rapper Jay-Z and the Good Friday agreement. I felt that it was about time that the Guardian received the same treatment. On the same page can be found the corrections and clarifications: the Guardian - along with its Sunday sister newspaper, the Observer - is the only newspaper to voluntarily publish corrections each day. Every Monday, the reader’s editor, Siobhain Butterworth, writes a column that has even corrected and clarified just how the corrections and clarifications column works.

I have read the Guardian since college because I found that in general I have found myself in agreement with its excellent comment and analysis section. Sometimes my opinion does differ from that of this newspaper - sometimes diametrically opposed - but I can generally see the other side of a well-reasoned argument. The letters page represents a wide variety of - often conflicting - views on the current headlines as well as some just light-hearted trivia. The right to reply is regularly seen here; with a separate response column for the bigger views.

The g2 section - from Monday to Friday - is much more light-hearted than the main newspaper: even carrying the sort of celebrity gossip one would associate with the red tops. Throughout the whole newspaper and all of the supplements there are thoughtful articles written by some excellent columnists; Charlie Brooker, Lucy Mangan, Martin Kelner, Time Dowling and - especially - Marina Hyde. On a Thursday Hyde’s column graces the back page of the sport section and is always thought provoking - often witty - and gets straight to the point. In g2 on Fridays she is responsible for the gossip column ‘Lost in Showbiz’ that is a self parody of the real thing found in the tabloids and gossip magazines. For serious journalism, Hyde’s column each Saturday looks at much more serious issues and is always a marvellous read.

The Guardian changed format in September 2005 to a Berliner: halfway between a tabloid and the traditional broadsheet and is one of only two British newspapers published in full colour. There are - still - the famous typographical errors that made the Grauniad famous: urban myth goes so far to say the masthead was once spelled Gaurdian. These days the errors tend to be poor semantics rather than erroneous spelling or typesetting.

The greatest appeal to me about the Guardian has always been its ability to fall right between the tabloids and the rest of the quality press in style and content of the articles and headlines. The occasional pun even slips in - though of a standard infinitely superior to the strained efforts of the Sun - as with the title of the selection of internet video clip addresses published each Thursday in the sport selection: Clip Joint.

All in all, the whole newspaper makes for such an excellent read that I will search every newsagent in town until I find a copy if my local shop has sold out. I will even forgive them for the lowercase g on the masthead.