We should hear more from people like Paul Dacre – we all need to be challenged

The tit-for-tat remarks from the current and former editor of the Daily Mail are a soap opera, but beyond that it is important we know their views

Dacre is strong meat, especially for those of us who find his general influence on public life to have been a net negative (Getty)

We live in strange times. Leaders and former leaders attacking one another. Radical changes of policy. Concerns about keeping in touch with core supporters...

Yes, that’s right, the Brexit virus appears to have even infected the Daily Mail. The editor and former editor are in a state of some open hostility. Former editor Paul Dacre has “hit back”, as they say in tabloid land, at his successor’s remarks about losing advertisers; “economical with the actualité”, a nicely turned phrase once used by Alan Clark, is the riposte.

The row has been played out in the pages of the Financial Times, like an FA Cup tie being held at a neutral football ground. And there’s been crowd trouble.