3 OCTOBER 1981, Page 19

Sir: There was a time when no Saturday evening was

complete without a couple of hours in the local, spent perusing the Spectator (for its, oh well, good-natured sense) and another weekly publication (somewhat to your left, a mixture of parlour pink delusion, good writing and occasional intelligence). Your rival, however, started going downhill until, amidst the incoherent semi-Marxist ranting, only Mr Arthur Marshall made the thing worth reading. And now the swine have shot him.

Surely, Sir, it is the time to do the right thing and invite him on board? His effable good manners can surely find a middle ground between Taki and Jeffrey Bernard. R. E. Davies

The Reform Club, Pall Mall, London SW I