Private Eye’s shameful attack on Allison Pearson

What is the purpose of Private Eye? I know it’s supposed to be some kind of anti-establishment satirical magazine, boldly holding power to account and standing up for the little guy. But I must say I’m finding its response to the extraordinary police doorstepping of Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson rather puzzling. 

You would think that this supposed thorn in the side of the powerful would sally out in defence of a fellow journalist being visited by the police because of something she posted online – not out of love for the journo in particular, but for the vital principle of free speech.

Sadly, however, it seems any such principles have fallen by the wayside. Private Eye’s fortnightly print schedule has finally got round to covering the Allison Pearson case and far from taking aim at the extraordinary overreach of Essex Police – say, by highlighting its woeful record of solving actual crimes – it has run a personal attack on Pearson herself.