Baldly speaking Sir: Those of us who are too poor
and respectable to feature in Taki's upwardly- mobile columns must be grateful for a guest appearance via the tradesman's entrance, even as bald and envious hacks skilled mainly in claiming phony expenses (High life, 26 October).
Far from being envious, I felt that my own verdict on the Referendum Party's Brighton conference in the Guardian had been generous towards the motives and cal- ibre of most participants, thought I can see how my passing reference to the smattering of 'international white trash' on the confer- ence fringe could have offended Taki. As to expenses, so munificent were the party organisers that I will scarcely have to claim more than my bus fare.
Taki complains that I raised the circum- stances of Jimmy Goldsmith's 'inconsistent' Wilsonian knighthood in 1976, as if I had done it simply to tease or annoy the old boy. What actually happened was that I asked why Sir James saw fit to run Referen- dum Party candidates against Michael Howard and Michael Spicer, whose Euro- sceptical credentials are at least as consis- tent as his own.
As has been reported elsewhere, he pro- ceeded to denounce them vehemently as fraudulent anti-federalists. I then men- tioned the Wilson K and he was equally emphatic and unconvincing on that score too. A man who vomits on pygmy politi- cians didn't have to take it, did he?
Taki is right on one point. I am bald. Touché! So is Jimmy Goldsmith, though I do not see Taki as the courtier who is going to break the bad news to him. A pity, it would do them both good.
Michael White
The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1
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