Narrow window
Sir: I am sorry that Alastair Forbes (Let- ters, 5 March) is so upset by my article about his friend Gianni Agnelli, which he considers 'an ignorant, fabulising diatribe', though for the most part he doesn't say why.
In his own diatribe he makes only one assertion to which I feel obliged to reply — that I have made an 'inexplicable whopper' ul suggesting that Agnelli has any personal influence on La Repubblica, Italy's leading daily newspaper. In fact I carefully made the point that its editor, Eugenio Scalfari, is universally respected and subservient to none. Like Mr Forbes I enjoy and admire La Repubblica. But it only seemed reason- able to say that since its controlling prop- rietor, Dolt Carlo Carraciolo, is the brother-in-law of Gianni Agnelli, and since Fiat has a not insignificant shareholding in his Espresso group, it cannot be thought entirely independent of Agnelli influence, however responsibly and sparingly that influence may or may not be applied.
Could it be that the view from my Florentine window, narrow and poor though it is, illuminates more and with less prejudice than that of Mr Forbes from Chateau d'Oex?
Rupert Scott
2 White Horse Street, London WI
Previous page
