Friday 13 May 2022 10:10 PM Why a free Press is a vital part of our democracy, by owner of the Daily Mail, ... trends now
The proprietor of the Daily Mail has delivered a passionate defence of free speech and family values in a historic address to celebrate the newspaper’s 125th anniversary.
Lord Rothermere hailed the Mail’s tradition of holding the powerful to account and exposing ‘corrupt, pompous, incompetent and immoral’ politicians from all parties.
And he raised a toast to the Queen in her jubilee year as he praised the monarchy for protecting all of Britain’s freedoms including those of the Press and ‘the vital role it plays in a healthy democracy’.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie were among 800 guests at the event at Claridge’s Hotel in London as Viscount Rothermere pledged: ‘We are beholden to no one but our readers, who love and respect our journalism.
‘That is why we are a genuinely free Press. And, however much those in power try, they can never – to their fury and frustration – control us.’
The Daily Mail has been owned by the same family since it was founded in 1896. The belated 125th anniversary celebration was twice postponed last year because of Covid restrictions.
Alfred Harmsworth and his brother Harold, who became the first Viscount Rothermere, were young men when they risked every hard-earned penny they owned to launch the Daily Mail on May 4, 1896.
Packed with human interest journalism to both inform and entertain, it was an instant hit and quickly began selling a million copies a day.
Special guest: Lord Rothermere (right) poses for a picture with Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left)
Lord Rothermere, the 4th Viscount, said: ‘The Mail was so successful because Alfred understood in his very bones that the paper was there to serve the readers – not the other way round.’
He said detractors in the ruling class had sneered, with Lord Salisbury, the PM at the time, branding the Mail a newspaper ‘produced by office boys for office boys’.
‘How stupendously he missed the point,’ said Lord Rothermere.
‘Unlike him, the Mail never condescended to its readers. Quite the opposite: it revered them.
‘And what Salisbury failed to understand is that those “office boy” readers dreamt of becoming office managers, buying their own homes, and giving their children better lives than they’d had. They were the backbone of modern Britain.’
Alfred had also understood the aspirations of Victorian women to achieve gender equality, and had started Fleet Street’s first Woman’s Page.
Standing up for decency and the family
Lord and Lady Rothermere hosted Thursday evening’s party which was attended by Cabinet ministers including Priti Patel, Michael Gove and Dominic Raab, along with former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair.
In his speech, Lord Rothermere warned of the ‘increasingly shrill world of fake news and malign Twitter echo chambers’ and said the Mail’s values ‘matter more than ever’.
He told the gathering: ‘This is why we must not be afraid to call out the charlatans, the hypocrites, the cancellers and those who hate this country, its culture and its past. We must not be afraid to stand up for decency and the traditional values that have stood the test of time.
‘Yes, we must support equality and respect minority rights, but equally, we must never forget that majorities have rights too.
‘And above all we must passionately defend the family.’
Lord Rothermere expressed immense pride in his own ‘strong and loving family’, as Lady Rothermere and their five children, Vere, 27, Eleanor, 25, Theodora, 20, Iris, 18, and Alfred, 11, listened to his speech.
And recalling his own childhood, the viscount told the audience he was a ten-year-old ‘boy in
