A word to Waugh
Sir: Auberon Waugh complains 'that the excessive prosperity' of the working classes becomes them and that 'the parents make hideous noises and smells and the face of England is mutilated to satisfy their proletarian tastes and appetites'.
I read that in a dirty little contractor's hut, in between painting some steelwork we had just erected. The rest of the gang were reading the Sun and the Mirror, as usual. Try as I might, I cannot seem to wean them on to better literary fare. They seem to be conditioned beyond recall, and one is barely twenty years old. We've been through all the Paul Raymond stuff, by the way, plus a lot that's strictly under the counter. Violence we like, thoughts on hanging, football, strip shows and rape are other popular subjects. All this against a background of Radio One, with about every sixth word an expletive. Let us get one thing clear. If 'the face of England' is being mutilated, as Mr Waugh puts it, by the proletarian class, then they are mightily assisted in that activity by their instructors in the class represented by Mr Waugh. Especially is that so of its branch engaged in the communication and entertainment field, who prostitute their talents at the altar of gutter commercialism, feeding like the carrion crow on that which they hold in contempt. Mr Waugh is a fine writer, with sound views in some directions — about the foolishness of 'publicfinanced arts for example. The great Englishman, William Booth, showed that poverty was a social condition, not a personal fault. Poverty of the mind and the soul, like noises and smells, are similarly related to the social environment, which is the consequence more and more of deliberate political choice, or of pitiless market forces politically unchecked. Let Mr Waugh keep this in mind for the future. Ted Spanswick 7 Alexandra Rd, Chepstow /Casgwent, Gwent
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