Our chief leader writer compares today’s team with a golden period of leader writing in the run-up to the first world war
![The Guardian editorial: how does a newspaper decide what it thinks?](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/814a272d97fbdd8d8db033cef19d8ce3be0c2fd4/0_0_2815_1691/master/2815.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=a6c1b0fc44ae84c61453d9daea5a1ac8)
A newspaper’s views evolve but its leader columns represent a palimpsest of its history, where layer upon layer of thought has been inscribed. So how does a publication such as the Guardian come to decide what it thinks about an issue? The newspaper’s leader column dates back 200 years, to its first edition, but it was a long time before it found its voice.
For David McKie, the Guardian’s former deputy editor who ran the leader column for more than 20 years, the most formative period coincided with the decades leading up to the first world war, which shaped paper’s outlook into a familiar form.