Brought to book
Sir: Paul Barker's account of the recent AGM of the London Library is a distorted version of both the temper of the meeting and of the discussion (The Stalinists have taken over the London Library', 10 November). He does not mention that some Library members already voluntarily pay the full cost of their membership. Why does he wish to avoid paying the honest and proper amount? Why does he feel that he is entitled to a hand-out of £165 a year paid from the fast-dwindling reserves of a charity which was not set up to give pecuniary benefits to its largely middle-class members?
He is very free in pitching epithets like 'Stalinist' at his opponents. May I say that some of his allies reminded me of the selfish dinosaurs of yesteryear defending the Spanish practices of the London dockers or old-style Fleet Street printers. They wanted something for nothing, and someone else to pay — Jack Dash blustering in the sanctimonious tones of North London bien-pensants.
Richard Davenport-Hines London W14
Previous page
