Joan Humble: Blackpool Gazette censors all comment on MP's expenses

After The Blackpool Gazette published an article which exposed the expense claims for the second homes of Fylde Coast MPs, numerous critical comments were made by readers which were quickly removed with the note, 'Comment Reported Unsuitable By User':

Blackpool Gazette: MPs' second homes cost taxpayers £80k

Though not all comments were read before they were removed, many were, and the only apparent reason that they were deleted seems to be that they were outraged at the ongoing expenses scandal as they were neither offensive or inappropriate.

So, who is responsible for the systematic censorship of public opinion?

Either The Blackpool Gazette has taken the initiative to sanitise the article or there is a New Labour Party apparatchik who has been given free reign to stifle dissent by the newspaper's website editor.

This is not, by far, the first instance of The Blackpool Gazette allowing or perpetrating the mass censorship of comments which are critical of local MPs which suggests that the paper has an ulterior motive.