27 DECEMBER 1969, Page 25

The rate for the job?

Sir: It seems to be the custom nowadays for young correspondents to the BBC and even to the SPECTATOR (13 December) to give their ages when they sign their letters.

It is astonishing to me what elegant English they write in their, presumably, unaided letters. Yet when young people appear on television, so often, all they can do is to mumble a few semi-coherent words mixed with a number of meaning- less 'you knows'.