SIR,—Richard Ingrams is surely wrong in his esti- mate of
what is called the 'Satirical Movement.' The antics of these young people may be amusing, but their value in any constructive sense is abso- lutely nil. They certainly do not warrant the solemn notice given them by Mr. lograms's column in your journal. '
'The old lies must be questioned out of existence,' quotes Mr. Ingrams, but in fact no questions are asked and none are answered. All that happens is that a jaded public is shocked, and therefore de- lighted, by a novel form of entertainment in which public figures are the principal butts. In so far as these goings-on refer to the relation- ship of the young to the old, we know that the delusions of youth are endemic. They consist in thinking that some new and wonderful element has entered into public life, and this state of self- congratulation is attended by the normal egotism and blindness.
Is the picture, for instance, of the Prime Minister in knickerbockers any more asinine than the picture of a group of young people doing the twist, or thousands of teenagers reduced to hysterical im- becility by the sight of the Beatles?
There is nothing unusual in the spectacle of schoolboys cocking a snoot behind the backs of their masters and amusing themselves by mimicking their mannerisms. What is new today is their possession of a licence, issued by the school board of governors, to perform these antics right in their faces.
Charlton, Gloucester
R. GRIFFIN
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