LETTERS Pitcher of spit
Sir: Paul Johnson is right to draw attention to the lack of protest over the Labour Party's action in banning the four newspap- ers of the News International group from its Conference (The press, 4 October).
This ban extends far beyond Blackpool. For eight months, shadow ministers and MPs have been forbidden to talk to jour- nalists from these papers and there has been a concerted campaign to persuade or prevent people with socialist beliefs even to read the publications. Maybe the ban could be tested in the courts. But it might have been overturned without going to law.
Suppose all the Fleet Street newspapers had told the would-be dictators: 'This a threat to democracy. Either you give facili- ties to all of us or you give them to none of us.' Who can doubt that the Labour Party, facing the loss of the lifeblood of publicity, would have relented? Not a single news- paper has had the courage to raise its head above the parapet. Not one has been capable of placing the public interest ahead of perceived commercial advantage. Our great British newspapers? Singly and col- lectively they do not amount to a pitcher of warm spit.
Ronald Spark
The Rotyngs, Rottingdean, Sussex
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