20 NOVEMBER 2004, Page 36

From Marianne Pitts

Sir: In his lament on the death of decency James Bartholomew reports that the middle class of 1895 donated 10 per cent of their income to charity, and compares this

with our meanness less than 1 per cent. One explanation may he that in 1895 very few people paid income tax and the rate was about to rise from eight pence to one shilling in the pound (5 per cent) in order to pay for the Boer War. Marianne Pitts

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire