Rev Johnson Should Be Treated The Same As The Rest Of Us

I thoroughly agreed with the letter from Conor Burns, in yesterday's Southern Daily Echo. Mr Burns questioned why it was that when Rev Johnson writes in a column in the Echo letters page, it is called From the Heart, but when anyone else writes it is called In My View. The two columns appear in exactly the same place in the paper.

Rev Johnson seems to be treated differently to the rest of us. The title of his column seems to imply that his views (deeply old fashioned left wing views) carry some special weight.

Rev Johnson writes regularly in the Echo, almost always on political matters (criticising foreign policy, commenting on asylum, immigration or nuclear weapons - to name a few recent ones). He very, very rarely writes about faith matters.

The Echo's response was pretty unconvincing In My View. They argue that because he has written a column for some time, it should retain its title, even if it appears in the same section of the paper as the In My View column. To me it looks like favouritism and I applaud Conor Burns for saying what many, including myself have being thinking for some time.