‘Left wing academics on Daily Echo editor’s hate list’ IF you buy a national newspaper there is a wide choice to suit your political opinions, from the Daily Mirror on the extreme left to the Daily Mail on the right. However, if you are looking for local news then it has to be the Echo, and you must put up with some of the eccentric opinions of the editor.

His recent “End of the Week” column (Daily Echo, January 10) gave great support to Michael Gove and his essay on how history should be taught, and so Tony Robinson, historians and other “left wing academics” join Mr Ian Murray’s hate list.

This list is getting to be quite extensive. Many will remember the treatment handed out to John O’Farrell at the Eastleigh by-election. Since then we have witnessed a bitter campaign against Southampton City Council, after voters had the temerity to elect a Labour administration!

Last year they were castigated for stinginess when they did not fork out large sums of our money to sponsor the round-the-world yacht race, even though we had the international boat show shortly afterwards. They can do no right in Mr Murray’s eyes, and join the BBC in his list of left wing subversives.

That would be fine if there were a choice of papers, but all that political power in the hands of one man can be dangerous, as we witnessed in the world wars, the history of which Michael Gove seems to believe is now being taught by Marxist teachers using extreme left wing propaganda!

C OLIVER, Southampton.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I invite Mr Oliver to ask the former Tory leader of Southampton if the Daily Echo gave him an easier ride than the present Labour administration, or indeed garner the views of the present Liberal Democrat administration in Eastleigh who are currently under our spotlight. This week also saw this paper report on cuts and redundancies planned at Hampshire County Council which, under Tory rule, has long been under scrutiny by the Daily Echo. I believe I can stand by the proven impartiality of this paper and its team.