31 JANUARY 2004, Page 30

Enough sycophancy

From Rodney Milne Sir: No doubt you thought it politic to publish that fawning article about Conrad and Barbara Black, erstwhile owners of The Spectator (`The ballad of Connie and Babs', 24 January). It may be of interest to you that Lord Black 'stands full square and all guns blazing in the tremendous tradi tion of great Fleet Street barons', but I can assure you that most of us have no desire to eavesdrop on such egregious sycophancy.

Rodney Milne

Basingstoke, Hampshire