Bean gas
Sir: 'When a reader cancels', by Paul Johnson (23 April), and the earlier letter from A.P.L. Campbell (16 April) do in- deed cause wonderment at the reactions of
LETTERS
some readers to the Spectator cover illustration to 'Where there's muck' (9 April).
Not letters of shock that it could ever be considered to import 2,000,000 tonnes a year of Boston's garbage, virtually undis- posable in its fair country of origin, be- cause of backward standards of control in UK. Not letters examining the consump- tion of fuel in loading, shipping over the wide Atlantic (what would the Pilgrims make of that?) and transplanting in the UK to the point that, it is postulated, the muck would decompose to produce 'methane enough to keep 50,000 — in electricity'. And none, either, speculating upon the quantity of red herrings included in the whole midden.
The cover illustration proved to be most appropriate — witty too — and sufficiently jolting to have me read immediately `Where there's muck' (instead of starting at the back with Jaspistos and Jeffrey, as usual), and what a sordid story that made. I despair then to read of those so occupied by their own sensibilities as to claim to be shocked over the illustration while having nothing to say of, or worse, being un- affected by, the true obscenity in the subject story.
Let them test their sensibilities, I say, down-wind of 2,000,000 tonnes of suppurat- ing scrod scraps and bean gas!
Eric Smith
Box 646, Antigua, West Indies
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