14 AUGUST 1976, Page 12

The answer ?

Sir: 'Notebook' (Spectator, 7 August) asks why the 6 p.m. news summary on Radio 2 on Saturday 31 July contained no reference to Mrs Thatcher's speech. If the author of 'Notebook' had really wanted to know, he or she could have done what any normal journalist would have done—picked up a telephone and asked. He or she would then have discovered that by six o'clock, reports of Mrs Thatcher's speech had already been broadcast fourteen times by BBC Radio News.

Stan Taylor Editor, Radio News British Broadcasting Corporation Broadcasting House, London W1A 1AA

Mr Taylor's point was made in the note. It does not, of course, explain or account for the exclusion of this news from a rather important bulletin.—Editor, Spectator.