A right bore
Sir: Mr Bruce Anderson, (Politics, 27 Jan- uary) seems to think that all those who read The Spectator are as far to the right as those who read the American Spectator. Other- wise he would be unlikely to assume that mere crude insults about living politicians, and grossly insulting the memory of a recently deceased trade union official, could be an acceptable offering to place before your readers.
In 20 years of reading The Spectator I do not recall that I have previously encoun- tered such low-grade insults. Reference to your illustrious predecessor as `slitty-eyed' by Mr Alan Clark was merely an attempt to be entertaining, whether ill-judged or not. Mr Anderson's insults are not even superfi- cially clever. You have only to look into Miss Harman's eyes, he says, to see her character revealed: 'cold-hearted, mean- minded, hard, ambitious.' Can no evidence be found other than by ocular examination? If not, her standing is unlikely to be dam- aged by the fancies of your political colum- nist. On looking into Mr Anderson's prose, is it reasonable to infer that he is a bar- room bore whom one would go a long way to avoid?
Jeremy Putley
44 Silverfields Road, Harrogate, Yorkshire
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