The following is a text of a letter to Paul Dacre, the Editor of the Daily Mail regarding an article in last Friday's Daily Mail. In it columnist Richard Littlejohn states: Anyone who pronounces Hezbollah as 'Hiz-bull-arrrgh' and Israeli as 'Izza-ra-ay-lee' is almost certainly telling lies." (Friday, 4 August 2006)

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Paul Dacre Esq.
The Editor,
Northcliffe House,
2 Derry Street,
Kensington,
London, W8 5TT
07 August 2006


Dear Mr Dacre,

Firstly, we would like to praise your coverage of the current Israel-Lebanon conflict. It is extremely depressing to see the British government under Blair so slavishly toe the Israeli and American line.

However, we are extremely concerned by comments made in an article by your regular columnist, Richard Littlejohn.

In it he writes that:

"I use a rough rule of thumb whenever I watch television coverage of the Middle East. Anyone who pronounces Hezbollah as 'Hiz-bull-arrrgh' and Israeli as 'Izza-ra-ay-lee' is almost certainly telling lies." (Friday,4 August 2006)

Other than being another very silly, stupid comment that does no credit to your columnist or your newspaper, this is also seen by many people as being racist, that somehow, based on someone's accent you can predetermine that they are all genetically liars.

This goes well beyond the boundaries of robust free speech and comment. We look forward to hearing from you on this issue, and to inform our members of your reply.

Yours sincerely


Chris Doyle
Director