Spectator's Notebook
IHAD thought Richard Hoggart would be batting on an easy wicket when he defended the Pilkington Report and 'the organic beauty of our scheme' at a conference of adult education tutors held at London University. But in fact he had to put up an exhibition of classic York- shire stonewalling against the sharp questions that bounced his way, Perhaps some of the un- Casiness of his audience was aroused by the revelations of his attitude which he occasionally Provided. 'The, argument has come down into the public arena,' he said, 'and you find then that many of the people you have to argue with don't share a common language with you. You may easily come a purler because you have to define ycur terms.' I liked that. And this: 'I started from the assumption that Pay TV was the answer for highbrows like me,' delivered without even a smile. Dekribing his disappointment at Alan Pay's criticisms in the Observer, he said: 'Alan Pay is in no way an interested man, an academic, and therefore someone to whose views one Would normally give weight.' I found somewhat disturbing this revelation of what Mr. Hoggart thinks should normally be given weight, especi- ally since he told us that the justification of the Committee's conclusions was that they followed remorselessly, relentlessly, on the evidence which came in.' Surely, as his questioners at the con- ference suggested more than once, that depends on the quality of the evidence itself, and on how it was measured?
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