Living Below the Line
SIR, —May I thank Tony Lynes for his helpful letter about child poverty and for the extra information he has since sent me. And I would also like to thank the anonymous person who sent me a pound for 'Ross.' That was a very kind thought indeed.
I am a little at a loss to know what to say about Timothy Bellinghancs letter. Whether his affluent prep-school boys choose or do not choose to use underwear is completely irrelevant: though one would think it would make them somewhat unattrac- tive from a hygienic point of view. I have re-read my article which seems to me to be (for once) uncon- troversial and unexceptionable.
I have no special feeling about long hair in boys- 1 simply said it used to be some sort of elementary social yardstick, that's all. As for other 'contemptible lower-middle-class prejudices' I might or might not have them—Mr Bellingham could not possibly dis- cover their presence or absence from my article. I find, too, his assumption that I am 'astray' when our so different teaching milieux are compared, insolent and ignorant.
ARTHUR BARTON
9 Southfield Drive, Timperley, Cheshire
Previous page
