Letter: A blow against tabloid cant

Sir: Well done to Polly Toynbee for striking the first blow against the scourge of the tabloids (6 June). There are those of us who would have relished the opportunity of doing the same when we, too, were the subject of their pernicious, moralising cant but couldn't fight back for lack of access to your front page.

Polly and other responsible journalists dealt with the Child "B" case by focusing on the hugely important issues it raised, treating me as a public servant with some integrity. For the tabloids, both national and local, meanwhile, it was open house for vitriol and personal abuse.

Until my experiences of the past 12 months I had always been a staunch defender of a free press. I now wonder whether those of us in the public glare need some means of protecting our families from the gutter press.

STEPHEN THORNTON

Chief Executive

Cambridge & Huntingdon Health Authority