7 FEBRUARY 1998, Page 27

Sir: I remember being first intrigued by the legend, 'Will

the last businessman to leave the province turn out the lights' when I saw it written in Irish dust across the back doors of an artic box trailer, rolling out of County Antrim up the linkspan of the Larne–Stran- raer ferry in a recession in the late Seven- ties, ten years before any greengrocers' shop window campaign.

A good lorry driver can usually match the brevity and outshine the wit of a tabloid sub-editor.

Andrew Rosthom

Ivy Cottages, Tockholes, Dawen, Lancashire