SIR,—DO , 1 suffer from a peculiar and pitiable blind- ness to
the finer points of modern journalism, or are
there others too who find themselves increasingly irritated by the cheap, sneering style of comment upon Parliamentary personalities employed by your contributor Taper?
Is readability the sole requirement for a com- mentator in a serious journal of high reputation? Taper is certainly readable, even amusing. And no doubt he is sometimes right, though that might be harder to prove. But he is making me feel that no body of politicians can possibly be quite as bad as Taper makes them. Is his flickering light one of truth, or distortion? When it falls unflatteringly upon some fresh unfortunate, my reaction now is, 'Well, there must be something to be said for So-and-so, if Taper is attacking him like this.'
But perhaps it is I who am foolish, having failed to recognise in this the latest and most subtle weapon of Tory propaganda. Maybe the studied rudeness to one Minister after another is deliberately designed to provoke sympathy and support fcir the victim. If so, Taper should be just a little kinder to the Opposition members, lest he overreach himself and arouse sympathy for them also.—Yours faithfully, Hayes Rectory, Bromley, Kent A. ERIC SMITH
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