LETTERS Puffed up with pride
Sir: Reviewing the political journalism of the late Peter Jenkins (Books, 14 October), Geoffrey Wheatcroft lists a dozen more or less prominent Cambridge-educated jour- nalists, and flatly states that the emergence of that 'astonishing crop of talent', to which he thinks Peter Jenkins also belonged, was `the decisive moment when journalism overtook politics as the career for gifted people'.
So now we know what caused the decline of post-war Britain! Imagine (if you can) a Cabinet containing Watkins, Boxer, Asch- erson, Redhead and Frayn, not to mention the 'bright star', Jenkins himself. How could such a galaxy of talent have failed to solve our problems? And if they had failed, or just failed to agree, we could have turned confidently to a triumvirate of Worsthorne, Brittan and Gale for salva- tion!
When will the political commentators, who seem to know better than the rest of us whenever they touch a typewriter, descend into the arena and show us how to do bet- ter, or at least discover that the real world Is not so easy to manage? A little humility would be welcome in the writings of the dazzling elite whom Geoffrey Wheatcroft invites us to admire. And in others too, including the Oxford-educated titans who write in your splendid magazine.
John K Hickman
48A Fitzgeorge Avenue, London W14
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