Place to air our opinions

DESPITE it being a digital age, a traditional medium such as the M.E.N.’s paper copies plays a key role in our society.

I get dozens of emails, Facebook posts and tweets from ‘friends’ and people I ‘follow’ so, as the volume of communication noise inexorably increases, it is all too easy to miss things.

Of course, I can go out of my way to read alternatives with opposing views, but how many of us have the time or money?

Publishing conflicting views and arguments in letters pages is most important.

All editors edit and select for space and other considerations and this can put a spin on letters.

However, where there are opposing views, be it on Brexit, austerity, council expenditure priorities, or even football, the ‘little people’ can challenge the powerful.

Two controversial examples: property speculators’ building plans and the recent proposal to impose zones banning protests outside abortion clinics.

Without a paper that serves the community, both these issues would pass you by unless you were directly involved.

Manchester has several commercial and community alternative electronic media serving a spectrum of viewpoints and covering stories the M.E.N. doesn’t, but they don’t have letters pages whereas the M.E.N’s Viewpoints sometimes challenge our assumptions and lazy opinions. In the weeks and months ahead it will be extraordinarily important.

J Thatcher, Stockport