Sir: Alexander Chancellor's reaction to my comments on Lord Denning
was uncharac- 'Red sky at night, sheep are alight.' teristically paranoid. The point, one would have thought, was simple enough but let me offer him an analogy he should under- stand.
If an Englishman became editor of a Scottish newspaper and urged that Scottish law, Scottish institutions and other aspects of the Scottish identity be heavily diluted or abolished, then it would be unsurprising if his lack of Scottish roots was pointed out.
And if he was a second or third generation Scottish immigrant, his relative newness would still be a matter for some legitimate comment. Would that move your diarist to paroxysms of horror?
If he is really saying that a sense of, and feeling for, national identity is fully confer-
red by an Act of Parliament then he must be bucking for a job in the race relations industry. But I cannot believe that things at the Independent are that bad.
As for what 'lies behind' my remark, there is no problem for me. But there may be for those, like him, who seem to think that 'German Jew' is an offensive remark and requires an apology. How odd, how Freudian even!
Andrew Alexander
London, EC4
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