27 JUNE 1987, Page 26

Sincere flattery

Sir: I was interested to read in your editorial of 6 June: 'As Tom Lehrer's Folk Song Army says of the war against Franco, they may have won all the battles, but we had all the good songs".'

I was even more interested to read the opening sentences of the Independent's editorial of 20 June: 'The American satirist Tom Lehrer composed a "folk song" . . . They may have won all the battles," the chorus ran. "But we had all the good songs".'

As Tom Lehrer also wrote: Plagiarise! Let no one else's work evade your eyes Remember why the good Lord made your eyes So don't shade your eyes but plagiarise, plagiarise, plagiarise!"

Morgan Krone

Girton College, Cambridge