Well I think that asking people whether they think newspapers are right- or left-wing is a very unintelligent approach, and I think the results show it. I mean, 12% of people think that the Mail is left-leaning? Almost a quarter think that the Sun is left-leaning? I think I'd be questioning my survey methods at the very least. How do you judge? By the leading article? I wonder how many of the people questioned whether ever read it...

Far better to judge a paper by critically scrutinising the quality of the journalism in its news reporting. Is the headline factual and neutral, or is it over-large, sensational and tendentious (an egregious example of the latter would be "Gotya!" or "Enemies of the people")? Does the body of the report contain opinion, which could be implied by the sensational language used, mixed with news?

Then there's the column writers. Famously, the Guardian invites columnists from the whole spectrum of opinion. It could be that there are more frequent articles from left of centre, of course. I read the Mail from cover to cover approximately once a week. I seldom, if ever, read a piece written by what any of us would call a leftie, and many of the columnists (not all) write in an unashamedly populist, dare I say superficial, style. I challenge anyone reading this to produce a recent Mail column that could be described as promoting a consistently left-wing viewpoint.

Trying to conclude by looking at those aspects of a paper whether it's right-wing or left-wing is too simplistic. I find it a lot easier and more useful to decide, using whatever critical faculties the good Lord has endowed me with, whether a newspaper may be relied on to give me balanced reporting and opinions that may enlighten my own, whether I agree or not, without pushing for that dreaded confirmation bias.