Stephen Glover on the Press: It has its faults, but we should be proud of the British press

National newspapers are supposedly dying. Half of them are losing money. All of them are losing sales. The internet is the future – and there appears to be little money even there for publishers. The glory days are over, and from now on it is all about managing decline.

So many think. So I sometimes think. And yet the other day a thought came into my mind which I have been unable to expel. It is that, despite everything, we still have the best national newspapers in the world. Not only that. Here is the real surprise – at any rate it surprised me. Some of them are getting better.

Perhaps I was fingering the redesigned Daily Telegraph at the time. After all its trials and tribulations, the paper looks quite handsome, and seems to be finding its voice. Or was I examining The Times, a much-improved newspaper under its new editor, strong in almost every department, and speaking with some of its old authority without being boring? Maybe I had the revamped Independent in my hand which, notwithstanding my reservations last week, crackles with energy. Or perhaps I was flicking through the new-look Daily Mirror.

As a political columnist does not marvel daily at the beauties of the British constitution, but gets on with writing about imperfect politicians, so a press columnist is bound to touch on the mistakes, hypocrisies and absurdities of newspapers. But the sheer diversity and pluralism of our national press remains a wonder – from The Sun to the Financial Times, from the Daily Mail to The Guardian. One can grumble about any one of them; each is far from perfect. But imagine what would be lost if even one title disappeared.

The capacity of several newspapers to revitalise themselves at a time of crisis suggests to me that the newspaper industry is in a better state than is commonly supposed. I can't recall the British motor industry coming up with brilliant new designs in the Seventies. It produced one turkey after another, before slipping below the waves. For all their financial and circulation problems, many of our newspapers remain innovative and confident. The most cheering news I have read in recent weeks was that at a time of general gloom, the Daily Mail is splashing out £400,000 a year to lure a reputedly excellent sports columnist from The Times.

Am I being starry-eyed? Maybe. But consider what happened in France last week, where President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a campaign to save France's flagging national newspapers. They already receive a billion pounds a year in state subsidies – not that this largesse has done them any good; quite the opposite. Nearly all of them are losing money. There are many fewer titles than in Britain, and nothing like the diversity and pluralism that we enjoy.

Like everyone else, I have no idea of the eventual extent of the damage that the internet will cause to the printed word, although I suspect it may be less than some nihilists predict. The recession is going to devastate advertising revenue. I can imagine two or three dailies going to the wall within the next 10 years, and three or four Sundays. There are difficult times ahead. But, for all that, most newspapers are far from moribund. There are still lots of publishers, journalists, editors and – most important of all – readers who believe in them.

If you're a stickler for accuracy, then get it right

The Guardian has produced many excellent part-works over the past year or so. Handsome productions on great speeches, philosophers and lyricists are crammed into every cranny of our downstairs lavatory. However, a recent offering called The Guardian Book of English Language may not receive pride of place beneath the loo rolls.

Talk about politically correct! Readers are instructed to avoid the word "actress" and instead use the uniform "actor". "Headmistresses" are to be called "headteachers". We must write "Derry", not "Londonderry". "Spinster" should be replaced by "unmarried woman". Avoid "call girls". "Public schools" should be described as "private schools". Other advice is not so much politically correct as questionable. "Decimates", the book states, is properly used to mean "destroy".

Newspapers can employ whatever style they wish, but they should not confuse their own predilections with correct usage. A more appropriate title for this work would have been The Book of Guardian English.

One small, welcome voice of dissent amid the delirium

So far as David Cameron is concerned, The Daily Telegraph has not fulfilled the role accorded it under the British constitution – to give full-blooded support to whomever may be leader of the Tory party, right or wrong. Simon Heffer, the paper's political commissar, has gone furthest in denigrating Mr Cameron as a spivvy lightweight. And yet, last Thursday, Iain Martin was given a whole page by the Telegraph to celebrate Mr Cameron's "era-defining speech". The Second Coming could scarcely have been greeted with greater rapture. The paper's leader raved on in a similar fashion. All former reservations had been thrown aside, and Mr Cameron was portrayed as the answer to our prayers and the object of our dreams.

Where does this leave the vituperative political commissar? The previous day, Mr Heffer had written a grumpy piece about the Tory leader. Now, tucked away on page two, was a commentary by our hero praising Mr Cameron's speech as "superb". Had the old bear had his nails clipped? Did they slip something into his gruel? I hope not. There has been something magnificent about Mr Heffer's utter contempt for the Tory leader. You might say that no one suspected in those days that he would ever become Prime Minister, and so Mr Heffer was risking nothing by being so rude. This would be far too cynical a view. Even with Mr Cameron far ahead in the polls, Mr Heffer has barely moderated his abuse.

Here, one felt, was a man who did not yearn for a knighthood after life's long struggle, who set nothing by the prospect of an invitation to Chequers for tea. When other Tory pundits have succumbed to Mr Cameron as Prime Minister, The Daily Telegraph's lowering commissar will surely remain unbiddable, endlessly hurling his fusillades in the direction of No 10.