No lasting victory
From Mr Vivian Linacre Sir: David Hughes's review of Humphrey Carpenter's book That Was Satire That Was (Books, 29 July) perpetuates the myth that the uninhibited undergraduate social com- ment and comedy of the 1960s wrought a political revolution. It didn't. The brilliant clique responsible for TW3, Beyond the Fringe, etc. certainly pioneered new forms of entertainment but made no long-term impact on public life whatsoever.
Mr Hughes's reference to their contem- poraries 'The other Fab Four' is indeed apt. Both the Beatles and the 'satire movement' were marvellous, meteoric phenomena that changed nothing. Just as the former's glori- ous music has been succeeded by the acous- tic anarchy of degenerate pop, so the latter — which was supposed to have permanent- ly dispelled political pomposity — has been succeeded by increasingly bombastic administrations.
No Juvenal or Dean Swift could compete with the complacency and incompetence of the manipulators of power and public money in Brussels and Westminster today. What squandermania can be exposed — what megalomania ridiculed — when gov- ernment consists, transparently and even triumphantly, of nothing else?
Vivian Linacre
Montgomery Street, Edinburgh
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