Society

I have been called every name under the sun by a great many people since my defence of Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger was published in the Spectator on Thursday. Naturally, most of the abuse has been online, but a little came my way on more traditional media. A caller to BBC Radio Ulster, for example, branded me ‘disgusting’. My favourite insult came from Piers Morgan, whom I admire tremendously. Without any trace of irony, he dismissed me to his six million Twitter followers as an ‘agent provocateur’. But perhaps, coming from him, this wasn’t really an insult. According to the vast majority of my abusers, my crime was not my

I must protest at the Sun’s sacking of Kelvin MacKenzie. As shop steward for the small trade union of columnists who were once editors, I can state categorically that the editor, not the writer, is ultimately responsible for what is printed. In no way, shape or form will my members be scapegoated by the boss class. It is irrelevant how offensive MacKenzie’s column was (unless, which no one has suggested, he was concealing material facts from his editor). The editor published it. If writers are to be made to swing for editorial decisions or inattentions, there soon won’t be any writers left. This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes,

All publicity is good publicity, right? Wrong. The United Airlines controversy last month showed just how quickly poor crisis management can decimate company shares. And we financial journalists know as soon as we mention our job titles when making a customer complaint, we usually receive a positive outcome, such is the corporate terror triggered by a whiff of bad press. But now the internet is making it possible for anyone to kick up a stink in a most public fashion. Recent research from comparison site Gocompare found that UK companies have paid out £65 million in compensation to customers who took to social media to complain about services and products.