Right-wing Press stirring up hatred

Dear Sir,

I am sure that almost all your readers must be appalled at the vitriol we have seen from some elements of the right-wing Press since the referendum vote on the EU last June.

Firstly, some of these national newspapers launched a hate campaign against the truly heroic Gina Miller for her launching of a legal case demanding that Parliament, and not a small cabal in Government, be sovereign in determining whether article 50

should be triggered.

These newspapers then launched their tirade against the judges of the highest courts in the land for determining that in law Gina Miller was right.

It is absolutely extraordinary that some of these national rightwing newspapers objected to Miller and the judges in this case because all they did was decide that Parliament be sovereign, which was exactly what these newspapers claimed was fundamental during the EU referendum campaign.

Now, once again, some of these right wing national newspapers are in overdrive in their campaign of malice against 11 Conservative MPs for daring to vote that Parliament, and not a small cabal in Government, be sovereign in determining the terms of our exit from the EU.

Labour MP Chris Bryant has said that since the 14th century the Speaker had demanded freedoms for MPs, including for them to "speak freely without fear or favour".

Yet some of these 11 Conservative have suffered dozens of threats including calls to be hanged for treason.

One Conservative MP is quoted in The Guardian as saying: "We are tolerating violence of language and it is being fuelled by sections of the Press. The frenzy unhinges everyone a bit, but completely unhinges the already very unhinged. And that is how you get violent acts as we saw with Jo Cox's murder."

Clearly some elements of the national right-wing Press have overstepped the boundaries of responsible journalism in that they are unquestionably stirring up hatred but who will bring this unacceptable element of the national Press back to a tolerable level?

The Press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) will not because, as Polly Toynbee correctly stated in her article in The Guardian in September 2015 Ipso is a sham regulator set up by the Press to protect itself.

As Polly Toynbee stated it is no surprise that Ipso is a sham given that the editors' code was written by the Editors' Code of Practice Committee, whose chairman was at that time Paul Dacre; he still is and has been the editor of the Daily Mail (which in my opinion is one of the worst offenders) for the last 25 years.

It seems that the Government does not wish to get involved, possibly because it does not want to be attacked for curbing Press freedom even though some elements of the right-wing Press have clearly overstepped the mark.

So it is left to us, each one of us, to steer these elements of the right wing Press back to what society deems to be morally acceptable by encouraging our friends and family to stop buying these newspapers that are stirring up hatred.

When the editors of these newspapers realise that their irresponsible journalism results in a signifi cant fall in sales, together with the consequential loss of advertising revenue they will stop printing these unacceptable articles and editorials and we as individuals will have done our bit to bring some goodwill.

Yours faithfully,

ROBERT DOUGLAS

Brereton.