A RECENT ADDITION to the gloom of Monday mornings is
that The Times tends to reseive for them its longest and most lugubrious jeremiads. This Monday we were subjected to 'Escapers' Club,' whose design was to show that those who do not subscribe to The Times's view on Suez (or, rather, views; they have been modified considerably in the last two weeks) . are inter alia masochistic, unpatriotic, irresponsible, Venetian voluptuaries, Test Match enthusiasts, and admirers of Miss Diana Dors. 'Nations,' The Times rumbled, `do not live by circuses alone.' The people know better; 'they still want Britain great.' There may be advantages in flaunting an inferiority complex; if we did it more often people might start paying attention to English. as well as Arab, nationalism. But I would have thought it better to take greatness for granted, rather than try to use it as a battle sob. And (as one of the Test Match enthusiasts so unkindly criticised) I was mildly surprised to find Wednesday's Times giving up three columns to a curious calypso by the Poet Laureate, on the subject of England's second innings at the Oval in 1882. Might not the space have been more responsibly devoted to less frivolous doings in that year : say, the bombardment of Alexandria, or the battle of Tel el Kebir? Or were they just circuses?
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