Javea
February 25,2018
Dear Sir,
Tom Draper states, ‘Sure, we’re all agreed the Daily Mail is a grotty little rag.’ Oh do we? There is then grudging agreement with one of its columnists, Richard Littlejohn, whilst saying that ‘its columnists often write before engaging their brain’.
I remind Draper that the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday have the widest circulation of all the tabloids in the UK. Like it or not, it represents the views of millions of people in the UK. It has a stable of highly respected journalists with decades of experience. Littlejohn and Quentin Letts write well researched, original and amusing columns, which is something you will never find in Draper’s derivative, left-wing rants.
Similarly, the Mail’s Max Hastings and Peter Hitchens are formidable journalists, and although the latter is anathema to the Left (I often disagree with him), his views chime with a large proportion of the population and are always well reasoned. What Draper is doing is sneering at anyone who does not hold his views and resorts to crude insults. If you are a Mail reader he means you.
Recently he has described Nigel Farage as ‘loathsome’. Why he uses that adjective because he doesn’t agree with him, I don’t know. Draper stated wrongly some weeks ago that ‘experiment after experiment had shown climate change is happening and manmade’. He then described ‘deniers’ as fools and idiots. I can tell him as a retired scientist myself with grave doubts about the climate change industry, that many serious scientists have doubts too. He clearly doesn’t know climate change is based on computer models not repeatable experiments which is the basis of the experimental method. I am not a fool or an idiot! Am I being ‘trolled’?
Draper should realise that good journalism is about writing thought provoking articles with humour and wit. It is not about recycling left-wing rhetoric in his sour column that would be better suited to a University Rag Mag to fit his own prejudices.
Yours faithfully
Peter A Fletcher
Tom Draper’s reply to Brian and Peter:
The Daily Mail has an agenda narrower than Farage’s worldview and that is to bash foreigners, denigrate women and sow division. They are purveyors of hate and I’m continually shocked and saddened that so many people are taken in by its lies and manipulation. The online edition is worse. Upon reflection, my comment about columnists was too general. The paper does have a small stable of very good writers. With regards to climate change, oh boy! I too have a scientific background and have looked at this topic in some depth. Humans are part of the problem. This is fact, not a matter of belief or opinion. It is the consensus position of the world’s leading scientific institutions. Are they all wrong? Oh no, wait a minute, perhaps they’re part of some global conspiracy.
Best regards
Tom
