Low-down and dog-eared
Sir: I know that Paul Johnson thinks I'm a dog-eared old dachshund, responsible for most of the moral rot in British society, because he says so roughly once every 15 months (And another thing, 21 May) usually after the Guardian has written something mildly abrasive about him. (Why is it that those who make a living dishing it out squeal the hardest when an odd saucepan comes their way?) But what has poor Loughborough ever done to Paul that he should find it 'gruesome and tight-fist- ed'? I'd have thought that a thriving Mid- lands town set in a green valley with a sit- ting Conservative MP and a keen sense of community and family values — specifically praised by Mrs Thatcher — would be just his ticket. is Paul Johnson a Lytham St Annes person for life, despite his Kensing- ton airs and Somerset graces? And what has Lytham (as opposed to the bit of St Annes behind the railway station) done to deserve that ? If this is the kind of elevated stuff they discuss at the Tory Philosophy Group, I can see why the great, gracious and generous Jonathan Aitken has to keep dishing out the fivers.
Peter Preston
Editor The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1
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