10 OCTOBER 1970, Page 19

Gimmickry of government

sif: Sections of the press are making play with the less personal form of government' we now ex- perience. The Mirror talks of 'The Imisible Man', for instance. TV is not immune from the tempta- tion either. Mr Alison exploits his %ein of sub-acid denigration. May I say how delighted I am that the Prime Minister is keeping to his pledge of no gimmickry in government? The recent Amman troubles appear to be over at least for the moment the hijacked passengers and crews are safe, and it is understood that Britain has actually flown in a field hos- pital of over 200 beds. without waiting for the Americans to do it first. All this has occurred with none of the uproar and mounte- bank posturing to which we have recently been accustomed. No coffee and sandwiches at dawn, no solemn (and totally unneces- sary) adjurations to keep calm, no dramatic dashes from A to B— just plain, sober hard work behind the scenes.

I like it very much, and suspect a lot of other people like it too. The Invisible Man has the Only- Too-Visible Man beaten by a mile when it comes to action.

Last but not least, the Prime Minister did not forget to praise the embassy staff. Gad, Sir, in G. Brown's time we didn't even know we had an ambassador!

John Palmer 44 Shaef Way, Sandy Lang, Ted- dington, Mddx