THERE’S a popular myth in British culture that the newspaper you read dictates your political opinions.

After all, everybody knows all the readers of the Daily Mail are convinced Britain is always at the brink of crumbling under a flood of immigration and fans of the Daily Express spend most of their time polishing their portraits of the Queen, while Guardian subscribers are too absorbed in knitting their own lentils to care.

Those who opt for the Daily Telegraph pine for a return to the glory days of Mrs Thatcher’s rule, Daily Mirror readers consider what happened on I’m a Celebrity last night more important than, say, what’s going on in the Middle East while people who pick up the Daily Star are more interested in pictures of ladies in underwear than actual news.

This theory has one, deep flaw – it’s complete rubbish.

Think about the newspaper, or newspapers, you read on a regular basis and consider the personality traits that apparently go along with them.

To use myself as an example, I tend to go for The Times as a first choice while also flicking through the Daily Mail and possibly The Sun if there’s one lying around.

So I’m obviously a football-obsessed, pro-page three hardcore Conservative?

Wrong. I read these papers because – whatever you might think of the stance they take on issues – they tend to be extremely well-written.

So it is extremely worrying that this idea is so pervasive in British society.

Every other person seems to have a story about someone they know who is terrified of immigrants, because the Daily Mail keeps telling us that Muslim family down the road are members of Islamic State, but no one will own up to believing this.

The simple reason is because it’s just not true – the view that we blindly absorb whatever we are told is, frankly, a deeply cynical view of the human race.

I chose to believe every opinion and view we have, political or ethical, is informed by our own life experiences.

Our choice of newspaper plays only the smallest part. If a newspaper could tell you exactly what to think I’d use my column to brainwash our lovely readers into agreeing with my every word. And I’m not going to do that.

Probably.