Letters | 14 June 2018

Exacerbating incivility

Sir: I agree wholeheartedly with David Goodhart that if our politics is to ever recover from its current vicious state then all of us need to do our bit to ‘stand up for civility’ (‘The age of incivility’, 9 June). Goodhart explains well that what has ‘gone wrong’ with our politics is exacerbated by, but not entirely due to, social media. If the mainstream media were also to stop and ask whether it has contributed to the problem, that could be a positive step.

The Spectator, for example, has at least two regular columnists in Rod Liddle and James Delingpole who seem to find it difficult to express a political opinion without putting their hatred for people they disagree with on display. In any political debate, if there are valid, serious points to be made, surely they can be made without malice? In their mission to uphold free speech, media can make a choice to uphold free speech underpinned by intellectual or moral integrity — or not.