Many columnists and opinion writers live by this mantra, that it is better to be right than to be popular. For this reason, a decision of the High Court last year may have been cause for concern among the iconoclasts in the media. Hancock had described this as “anti-semitic”, a statement he defended on the basis it was his honest opinion. But last month, the Court of Appeal said this approach had no support in any of the authorities on the defence of Honest Opinion and should be rejected for reasons of principle and pragmatism. Delivering the unanimous judgement of the court, Lord Justice Warby said: “It is, I believe, unprecedented.