Leaderless
Sir: I have read the Spectator for seven years. It is wittily written and intelligently provocative, in a manner that' puts it way ahead of its rivals among the weeklies. I recommend the paper to my friends and have just made a present of one year's subscription to one of them.
To my utter dismay I opened your latest issue (13 June) to find no leading article. I checked the next four pages in case those in charge of printing the paper had placed it elsewhere, in error. But no, the reason for its absence lay in the first paragraph of the Notebook.
How sad that you should feel 'unease' about the 'implication of authority' which a leading article gives, because it is this very uncluttered statement at the beginning of the paper which I find sets the tone for an excellent read, certainly at 50 pence. Leaders are only presumptuous if clumsily argued and infelicitous in tone: it cannot be said that Spectator leaders give anything but the opposite — lucid certainty of opinion. What a shame, sir, that you have smothered one of your paper's great assets. Bring it back and stop being so wet, otherwise your spinelessness will fast make the Spectator indistinguishable from its ugly sister in Great Turnstile WC1.
Gerald Renouf
4 King's Bench Walk,
Temple, London EC4
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