I applaud Enver Solomon's criticism (The YP, March 10) of the cruel and divisive language used by the British government and its media supporters to whip up a frenzy of fear and hatred against migrants, distracting people from more significant issues and burying the truth about our responsibilities to those less fortunate than ourselves.

Language can easily be abused as propaganda and that does appear to be happening increasingly in our public discourse.

Gary Lineker is right to call it out; western democracies are in a febrile state, the drumbeat of war is intensifying, and these are the conditions under which dangerous passions can be inflamed very easily by demagogues seducing us with carefully-crafted catch-phrases.

Gary Lineker will return to hosting Match Of The Day after BBC director-general Tim Davie apologised for the disruption to the weekend's football coverag PIC: Mike Egerton/PA Wire.

A perfect example in the adjacent column from Bill Carmichael - he moves quickly away from Lineker's comments about abusive language and is soon grinding the old saw of immigrants suppressing wages.

If only he used his valuable column-centimetres to ask for these questions to be examined fairly in a reasoned public debate free from emotive language - surely the role of politicians in what we still hope can be called an advanced and civilised society.

Divisive language is being used to whip up hatred against migrants - Yorkshire Post Letters