Express & Star Comment: When you are in a hole, stop digging
It is a familiar enough phrase – and as newly-elected Wolverhampton South West MP Eleanor Smith disappears ever deeper into a mess of her own making, she would be wise to heed the words.
Given the weight of public opinion opposing her view about the Black Country flag, most people would take time to reflect. If someone is new to the area – to the point that they are still finding out which parts of the city fall into which constituency – they might also take time to get to know the character and nature of the local populace.
When tens of thousands of people vote in this newspaper’s biggest-ever online poll to vehemently reject claims that the region’s flag has racist connotations, it may be a time to take stock and listen. And yet, the Corbynite Labour MP instead chose to use her maiden speech in the mother of all Parliaments to reiterate her concerns about the red, white and black design of the flag, with its proud chain symbol.
She says her concerns centre on the image’s ‘historical associations with the slave trade’ and ‘whether this should be the only brand image for the Black Country’. Ms Smith would prefer a flag ‘that reflects all of us united as a collective rainbow of people’. As this newspaper has always made clear, she is perfectly entitled to her view.
What she is not entitled to do is to accuse the Express & Star of ‘misrepresenting’ her comments and saying they have been taken ‘out of proportion’. We have published a transcript of her conversation with our Political Editor and at no point have we received any formal complaint about the accuracy of our reporting, or any other aspect of it for that matter.
The Express & Star has a proud record of integrity, fairness and decency which has stood since the 19th century. On the rare occasions mistakes are made, apologies and corrections follow swiftly – although it has to be noted that the Independent Press Standards Organisation has never upheld any complaints against this newspaper.
As such it is disingenuous to say, as Ms Smith did in the Commons: ‘I believe in the free press, but the reporting must be done responsibility (sic) in a fair and honest way’.
Our reporting on this issue has been fair. It has been accurate. And it has been honest. To suggest otherwise is ill-becoming of any elected politician.
