14 JULY 1984, Page 22

Churls

Sir: The nigger/nig-nog correspondence of recent weeks is beginning to smack of something a lot less wholesome than nos- talgia for prep school nicknames. In 1984.

these words are used to abuse and frighten people whose skin happens to be black or brown. Skinheads and other churls scrawl these words in telephone boxes and shout them on public transport. It is slightly shocking to read this sort of nastiness in the elegant columns of the Spectator.

John Sweeney

York Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire