Civilised discourse

Why does a newspaper that claims to be serious publish ill-informed, irrational and racist outbursts such as the one on July 31 by Peter Roberts of Cardiff? Does The Times consider this a useful contribution to a reasoned debate about immigration? I...

Why does a newspaper that claims to be serious publish ill-informed, irrational and racist outbursts such as the one on July 31 by Peter Roberts of Cardiff? Does The Times consider this a useful contribution to a reasoned debate about immigration? I wonder whether it would have published a letter claiming that Maltese immigrants to some foreign city or other were threatening "to breed and to boost their population outnumbering (the locals)" and that the city was going to be "over-run by (Maltese) pimps and drug dealers" - sentiments not unheard of 40 to 50 years ago in certain colonial quarters.

May I respectfully suggest that it is time The Times applied to its letters pages, so widely read, the standards of civilised discourse that it proclaims in its editorials.

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