Letter: Concern about the politics of the 'Daily Mirror'

Sir: David Seymour should not try and recruit me to his cause by misrepresenting the question that I put to the fringe meeting at a Labour Party conference. I was making the point that left-wing papers had the responsibility of examining areas of news and information that might not suit the taste of political 'establishments'. I was certainly not 'silencing fierce critics of tabloid journalism', as he suggests. I am one of their number.

I fear that Mr Seymour's approach of moving the Daily Mirror into the mainstream of tabloid journalism will not help to maintain that stance. The paper's distinguishing features will be lost in the putrid swamp that exemplifies most of this country's tabloid journalism.

Yours sincerely,

RICHARD CLEMENTS

High Barnet, Hertfordshire

25 February