Letters
Porton Down's syndrome
Sir: I enjoy a weekly read of the Spectator, and with particular amusement (in case you are inclined, from what follows, to dismiss me as a mere sentimetalist) such contributors as Jeffrey Bernard.
This pleasure was largely spoiled by Simon Courtauld's piece (Notebook, 25 February), or to be more specific the final paragraph of it, which made much levity from a matter which I would not have thought (and I'm sure a great number of readers of the Spectator will agree with me) is hardly the best topic to raise a laugh
from.
Very bullish; very macho; very hairy- chested — just a long way short of simple
compassion; and you are certainly very wrong, whatever the validity of your 'other', mocking viewpoint, in thinking that these obscene experiments at Porton, an affront to a civilised nation if ever there was one, are `to save human lives'. You are not a naive person, you just haven't done your homework — not the best credentials for someone calling himself a journalist to have.
There is ample evidence by now that these 'experiments' are being done, in fact,
in order to better the ways of killing people, not saving them. A recent report in the Guardian made that quite clear. Why is
there such obsessive secrecy if the objects are so much in the public good? In what way does a test of anti-riot deterrents `to explore the ways in which the spread of pain might be more effective' work to this end? A senior surgeon at Belfast's Royal Hospital is reported as saying that 'nothing they do at Porton helps us here'. He should know!
You, apparently, do not mind if a helpless monkey is shot in the eyes
`to help the victims of road accidents', or that your money pays for it. I do object to the activities of these mad scientists in white coats, and so will (I bet on it) the majority of the readers of the Spectator. I did not vote Conservative in order to give the Government a mandate to condone the barbarities of a Porton Down. They will not get my vote again.
Alan Maitland 3 Homer Terrace, Neville's Cross, Durham
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