LETTERS Facial prejudice
Sir: While not disagreeing with his assess- ment of the unattractiveness of the person- ality and editorial policy of Andrew Neil ('New Briton, or Caliban?', 13 June), I take strong exception to Charles Moore's gener- alisation about Scotsmen's faces `being composed of features out of scale with each other'.
If Moore were describing West Indians or Pakistanis in these terms his views would, rightly, have him before the Race Relations board. Scotsmen, and even Scots- born newspaper editors, can be egotistical, aggressive, mean-minded, vindictive and hypocritical as well as being physically unattractive. The same, I imagine, might be said about English, Irish and Welshmen. But Moore demonstrates all the ugliness of the English racist, as well as detracting from his argument by applying to a whole nation (Scotland) his potted concepts of what constitute facial features in scale with each other.
Are the stereotypical thick lips of Africans, or the protruding noses of Arabs and Jews, or for that matter the receding chins of the English chattering classes out of scale with their other features?
To this observer Charles Moore's photo- graph in the Daily Telegraph bears a striking resemblance to Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean. I leave it to others to judge whether Mr Moore is more facially acceptable than such Scots as, say, Sean Connery, Ian Lang, Gavin Hastings, Gordon Brown or Graham Souness ... or whether Englishmen like Bernard Manning, Roy Hattersley, Gareth Chilcott, Ron Atkinson or George Melly have features entirely in scale with each other. Beauty, as every pretty girl who ever dated an ugly millionaire can testify, is very much in the eye of the beholder.
Let's discuss Andrew Neil's lamentable editorship of the Sunday Times by all means. Let's be revolted by the Holy Willy- ism with which he attempts to cloak his royal muck-raking. Let's be embarrasssed at his obsession with seeing his face on the box. But the fact that, with the possible exception of Clive James, Neil is the least telegenic male regularly appearing on tele- vision is irrelevant. Let's leave the way he looks for the happy hour prattle at Grou- cho's.
What's much more worrying is the way Andrew Neil thinks.
Ted Brocklebank
15 Queen's Gardens, St Andrews, Scotland
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