Dickensian Xmas
Sir : I suppose I am not the only one among your foreign subscribers to have felt uncomfortable about the new tone of the SPECTATOR nor to have been shocked on read- ing (belatedly) the editorial of your Christmas number (26 December). Whether your reader shares your view of what is the best policy for Britain is immaterial, but he can- not help being struck by the callous tone of an editor who, through his title, suggests that he is dealing with odds and ends, who considers the tragic plight of people under tyranny from the sole point of view of Britain's vested interest, Ind who calls those who feel sorrow at the curtailment of liberty any- where in the world 'a handful of hotheads', and their protests 'the striking of moral attitudes'.
One would have expected an editor who wishes his readers a happy Christmas on the front page to remember that no man is an island, that any man's death dim- inishes us because we are involved in mankind; 'And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee'; to remember also, at the end of the Dickens year, that though it may be worse than futile to try and save the people of Borrioboola Gha while Bleak House needs setting in order, yet a vested interest in stability for its own sake is best imaged in the death-in-life of Satis House.Scrooge at least discovered that money is not enough. He stands corrected by your editorial. So do those of your foreign readers who have always maintained that Britain is not a nation of shopkeepers.
Irene Simon English Department, University of Liege, Belgium
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