British journalism tends to pat itself on its back for being fair and balanced. But it is far from it.

The election campaign has hardly begun and here, we have Rod Liddle in The Spectator telling us that we should pick a day when Muslims can’t vote.  

In it he writes, "My own choice of election date would be a day when universities are closed and Muslims are forbidden from doing anything on pain of hell, or something.... That would deliver at least 40 seats to the Tories, I reckon."

This is a simple example of how it is so easy to write what you want about Muslims.

Let’s look at this paragraph. Why does it sound all the more disgusting and vile if we replace the words ‘Muslims’ with ‘Jews’ or 'Sikhs' or 'Hindus' in this paragraph? Why does that sound all the more vulgar?

Some might say that it is the style of the writer and the publication and this is to be expected. But is it? Should we really be expecting such content in 2019? It is after all written in national publication which will no doubt be lauded at Press awards in the coming year.

The issue with British print journalism is that on the whole it is managed and run by white middle class professionals.

We can count on one hand the number of the ‘leading’ journalists working in the national newspapers from an ethnic minority background.

I am not talking about reporters but those who are able to make a real decision on what should and should not make it on to the pages. I am talking about senior editors and news editors. It is an embarrassing state of affairs for British journalism.

This is probably why closet racism is rampant in some of the widely sold newspapers and  magazines and most popular websites in the country. Barring the Independent and the Guardian, the right-leaning newspapers have in my opinion no intention of employing Asian and in particular Muslim reporters and journalists because that would mean being called out every time you decided to print something.

The reason why diversity at these levels is so important is because it is only through having Muslim, Hindu, Sikh reporters and senior editors that you are able to gauge opinions and through discussion see what is, and what is not, acceptable.

To put it bluntly, what we have is a whole bunch of white folk sat in their ivory towers printing stories that are having a direct effect on people’s consciousness.

What I find also perplexing is that such blatant racism as that by Rod Liddle in the Spectator is not called out by other publications. It certainly makes one feel it is okay to write such content and almost be applauded for it.

It is left to others to point out this blatant racism including members of the Jewish community.