Moore’s TV dinner
Sir: While I have been generally supportive of Charles Moore’s quest to impose a degree of financial proportionality on what the BBC pays Jonathan Ross, and of his ‘scheme’ to withhold payment for his TV licence until the matter is satisfactorily addressed, I am dismayed to read that he is doing so at my expense (The Spectator’s Notes, 4 July).
If he wishes to dine with the corporation’s director-general in order to discuss his ‘project’, could he not do so at his own expense instead of that of the taxpayer? Or should I now withhold payment of my TV licence until such gorging ceases?
Adrian Hilton
Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire
James on James
Sir: James Walton (Arts, 4 July) may be doing Clive James a disservice. The glory of his Observer column was that he never took television seriously. Clive James adored writing about Dallas and the verbal howlers of commentators on Match of the Day. He didn’t pay much attention to serious drama and documentaries. This is why there is hardly a mention in The Crystal Bucket of Play For Today, the weekly contemporary drama slot that was, at the time, British television’s equivalent of The Wire and Mad Men. All television reviewers since have followed in the court jester’s footsteps. The difference being that today’s reviewers can no longer take the serious stuff for granted. Unlike in James’s day, it isn’t there — certainly not on BBC1.
Peter Ansorge
London SW3
Rainbow anthem
Sir: Aidan Hartley (Wild Life, 27 June) is incorrect in stating that ‘after Mandela’s 1994 election the rainbow nation switched to “Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika”’ as a new national anthem very early on.
The first (Nguni) section of the new anthem is, as before, ‘Nkosi (Lord/God) sikelel’ iAfrika’; the second (Sotho — Tswana) an invocation to ‘Morena’ (Lord/God); the third a sizable piece of the Afrikaans ‘Die Stem (voice) van Suid Afrika’, as sung by the parrot. The final section, however, is in English, which had not been given a show since the country became a republic more than 30 years earlier. This inclusiveness, which can admittedly cause singing rugby players to shiver in chilly winds, is surely proof of an unprecedentedly liberal spirit towards the linguistic sensibilities of a mixed nation.
Jean Branford
Pieterkoen, South Africa
A plea for infamy
Sir: Taki writes of ‘Harry Lime, Graham Green’s infamous anti-hero’ (High Life, 4 July). Recently, a Daily Telegraph photo caption had Michael Jackson ‘infamously’ dangling a child over a balcony. In the same issue a leader, no less, used ‘infamous’ in this new weak sense of ‘notorious’, which has insinuated itself (I think from America, as usual) over the past ten years or so. I have collected many other examples. Before it becomes a lost cause, might Dot Wordsworth draw the world’s attention to this threat to an important word of moral reprobation? We need the concept of infamy for extreme condemnation; how are we to describe the activities of Pol Pot, Stalin and co. without it? I accept that meanings change; but this will surely be a loss too far.
J.A.R. Wilton
London SW11
Police targets
Sir: Gordon Brown is abandoning targets in favour of entitlements. Entitlement to police protection looms large. For every 100 robberies in 1997 there were 20 police officers. The latest figure is 16 police officers. There were 110,400 police constables in 2005. The latest figure is 108,900. Bricks without straw, anyone?
Norman Dennis
Director of Community Studies, Civitas
London SW1
Critical error
Sir: I’m staggered by Lloyd Evans’s review (Arts, 20 June) of The Winter’s Tale and Phèdre. Trashing one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays then Racine’s masterpiece in one column is a tour de force of philistinism: as if Michael Tanner were to belittle Figaro and then Tristan in his, or if I were to rubbish the St Matthew Passion and Winterreise in mine. After this, can Mr Evans be trusted with anything?
Robin Holloway
Cambridge
Swift response
Sir: In response to Susan Hill’s query (Diary, 4 July) about where all the swifts have gone, I think they may have come to north-east London. This year the skies above Hackney have been filled with them as never before, and yesterday evening I watched dozens doing crazy fly-bys in the air currents. One performed a negative dive straight out of Top Gun.
Elizabeth Street
London E8
A worthy winner
Sir: Well done the Spectator on selecting Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter as its no. 1 film (50 Essential Films, 27 June). A bold and imaginative choice, but thoroughly deserved. I remember seeing it as a child in England, and being utterly entranced. A recent viewing here showed that the film had lost none of its power to enthral. No wonder Laughton made no other films, despite the lukewarm reviews on its release. Maybe he knew that he could not better this masterpiece.
Paul Dalzell
Honolulu, Hawaii
Aged relatives
Sir: My great-grandmother was born in September 1848. She used to talk of her uncle, Sam Jagoe, who lost a leg at Waterloo. She resided with my family until her death in 1948 (17 days short of her century) and I was born in 1937, so I enjoyed nearly 10 years listening to her experiences. I wish I had paid more attention to what she had to say! Together we span 160 years. Is that a record?
Anthony Pattison
Vale do Lobo, Portugal
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