In defence of Sarah Vine

The first job of a columnist on a big newspaper is to be noticed. If people aren’t talking about the things you’ve said, what’s the point? By that measure, Sarah Vine is a good columnist. Her name is known. At the Daily Mail she says things that people notice and talk about. She does it on Twitter too. Over the weekend, she had this to say about the anti-Brexit march through London:

“There are no leavers there because they would be lynched. These people are so convinced of their righteousness they cannot see anyone who disagrees with them as anything other than a monster. The rhetoric against people who voted to Leave characterises them as sub-human.”

That is a mixture of fair comment and daft hyperbole. There weren’t any Leavers there because it was an event backing a cause they disagree with; Tories don’t go to Labour conferences, and vegetarians don’t go to butchers’ shops.