Brian Reade

Brian Reade’s column in yesterday’s Mirror really made me angry

There is nothing wrong with columnists writing controversial material to stimulate debate.

In fact, I would regard this as an essential part of any magazine or newspaper.

Yet Reade’s argument is less convincing than any tale spun by Jeffrey Archer.

Let us deconstruct.

Firstly, Reade’s designation of the political journalist as Peregrine was clearly designed to alienate Mirror readers.

Unless Peregrine Worsthorne had been speaking to him.

Secondly, Reade does not provide any evidence that when the political journalist said “the stories that really affect our lives”, he meant stories from inside Westminster.

And just because 90% of the people Reade knows drool over the McCann story with their plastic empathy, it doesn’t follow that this repeats across the country.

No doubt many of the 90% are Mirror journalists who monitor the news so they can discover what to write about.

Apparently anyone who doesn’t agree with the high level of coverage that the disappearance of a four-year-old five months ago gets is a snob.

Well, dust off my topper and turn my nose skyward.

Nobody has anything but sympathy for Madeleine.

But it isn't the most important item on the news agenda.

Like it or not, what happens in Westminster affects us all.

That is where laws are passed and governments formed.

Perhaps Brian Reade is the one who should be treated with contempt.