Pleasantly brutish
Sir: If I am not mistaken, Alan Watkins not long ago used the phrase 'genial brutality' in your pages to describe the manner of Yorkshiremen in general and Denis Healey in particular. I see in the Diary (22 June) he refers to Dick Crossman's 'customary genial brutality'. I sense it is a quality Watkins has a sneaking admiration for; does he seek it in his political acquain- tances, or was it merely a qualification for membership of Harold Wilson's Cabinet? One thinks of George Brown, Jim Callaghan. . . .
If so, only John Prescott among today's Labour's shadow Cabinet could be said to qualify. Can he count on Watkins's sup- port? As for Tony Blair and his closest col- leagues, neither genial nor brutal are the first terms that spring to mind. How about `calculated compassion'?
Stephen D. Barber 11 Chepstow Villas,
London W11
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