27 JULY 1985, Page 22

No joy

Sir: In reading through the issue for 20 July, I have the fearful impression that your journal does not have a good word for anybody these days. Auberon Waugh writes about the 'ridiculous Dr Jenkins' and 'the greedy generation of public em- ployees': John Osborne thinks of the sehoolteachers as 'indubitably Scum'; Christopher Hitchens in a shameful and spiteful attack on President Reagan sneers at him by suggesting that it 'may be inadvisable even on the best of days to stray too far from a convenient lavatory'; Alexander Chancellor describes the not- ables on the Nobel Peace Prize Committee as 'ridiculous': and Taki mentions 'trained seals like [Jack] Nicholson'.

Is the view of the world from 56 Doughty Street so mean-minded and miserable, so totally without joy or any sweetness and light, that your contributors now exist in the darkness where only spitefulness and cynicism can survive?

John Copeland 1 The Hall Yard, Burton-by-Lincoln, Lincoln