Pray Silence for Concord
I am sad that two of my favourite writers, Anne Scott-James and Katharine Whitehorn, should plead for Concord's throat to be cut on the grounds that it is or will be hellishly noisy. Much the same argument was, of course, used against the internal-combustion engine. And it certainly passes my understanding how people can work and live their days in the din of shed and shop and mill. That isn't an argument, surely, against the industrial revolution? Progress is often a bore, but it's not worth stopping it half- way. We can't settle for nice, slow, quiet, lumber- ing aeroplanes, because no one else would travel by them. And we can't settle down again to a peaceful timeless life spinning away at the wheel in Merrie England. Or if we do, include me out. And, I would guess, Mesdames Scott-James and Whitehorn as well.
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