Lancaster & Morecambe Newspapers Ltd. The company has subsequently been taken into the Johnston Press group. Perhaps the most sensational episode in the paper's history occurred with the edition of 6 August 1947. James Caunt, the editor, and not afraid to speak his mind in the Mustard and Cress editorial piece, penned a diatribe against British Jews for not doing more to prevent Zionist killing of British troops in Palestine, describing Jews as 'a plague on Britain' and encouraging violence against them. This brought a wave of condemnation, eventually resulting in the judiciary summoning Caunt for seditious libel. Widespread press coverage was given, even a report in the Sydney Morning Herald paper. In a high-profile trial at Liverpool Assizes, with Caunt being defended by the nation's leading advocate, he was found not guilty. The Visitor reported the acquittal on the front page, normally reserved for advertisements only. Soon afterwards, this led the paper to decide to permanently have news on the front page and to move advertisements to the inside pages, becoming the first local newspaper to do so. For many years after the Second World War, the paper had the strap line "founded in 1874 when income tax was 1d in the £". This was originally a sideswipe by James Caunt at the high-taxing post-war Labour government, but became a long-running hall mark of the paper. In 2005 the paper received a special RNLI award for its support and coverage of the lifeboats during the cockle picking tragedy in Morecambe Bay in February 2004. On 14 December 2021 the visitor website was shutdown and page visitors were thereafter redirected to the Lancaster Guardian website. Editors References External links The Visitor website Newspapers published in Lancashire Newspapers established in 1874 1874 establishments in England Morecambe Newspapers published by Johnston Press