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Hungarian uprising
From Johnathan Sunley
Sir: Dan Hannan is absolutely right to commend Hungarians for taking to the streets in protest against their prime minister’s admission that he had been systematically lying to them (‘The Hungarians have spoken for voters everywhere’, 23 September). Though no longer a front-page story, those demonstrations are still going on, ahead of local elections this weekend.
But the real flashpoint is likely to come in late October, on the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising. No doubt Prime Minister Gyurcsány (who is married to the grand-daughter of one of the Stalinists responsible for crushing that revolt) will try to defend his position on the grounds that what the country needs is stability and economic reform.
Patented by the father of ‘goulash communism’, János Kádár, and adhered to subsequently by generations of communists both before and after 1989, that is of course the formula that has bankrupted Hungary financially and in every other sense. The difference between then and now, however, is that while Kádár put Soviet interests first and could claim he had no choice in the matter, Gyurcsány will argue that his hands are equally tied — only by the convergence criteria for joining the euro set by the European Union.
Johnathan Sunley
London W6
Evangelical and intellectual
From Quinlan Terry
Sir: When you write about Muslims you treat them seriously, but when Jeremy Clarke writes about Christians he implies that they are all elderly people singing hearty 19th-century hymns (‘Tea, cake, buns and “what have you”’, 23 September). The implication is clear; that everything to do with Evangelical Christianity is out of date, ineffective and no longer relevant for intelligent people.
Mr Clarke seems to be unaware that there are among us a number of intellectual heavyweights leading large young churches which are faithful to Biblical Christianity. Such churches have the courage to stand against the tide of political correctness and point the way forward in this world and the next. They deserve support — not ridicule.
Quinlan Terry
Colchester, Essex
Warhol the monster
From Michael Henderson
Sir: Paul Johnson’s elegant weekly essays in The Spectator are one of the joys of journalism (‘like late Goya’, in Peter Oborne’s lovely phrase), but if he publicly doubts my Lancastrian birthright (Letters, 23 September), I feel compelled to state it thus: born in Manchester, raised in Waterfoot, Bolton and Rochdale. Far from delivering a ‘diatribe’ on his hymn to the county, I merely pointed out four factual errors — and facts, as an historian like Mr Johnson knows full well, are sovereign. However, in a spirit of amity between two Lankies, and on the understanding that some of the errors were misprints, I shall offer, as he requested, a nomination for a cultural ‘monster’ of our age: Andy Warhol.
Michael Henderson
London W13
From Professor Blaise Cronin
Sir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 9 September) relays this affectionate characterisation of one lovely Lancashire town: ‘Proud Preston, poor people, Low church, high steeple.’ I thought at once of my birthplace, Newry, and Jonathan Swift’s impressions of that careworn Irish settlement: ‘High church, low steeple, Dirty streets, proud people.’
Blaise Cronin
Bloomington, Indiana, USA
Wasting police time
From A.D. Dunster
Sir: It is blindingly obvious that Andrew Hamilton committed no offence at Heathrow (Letters, 16 September). Surely the correct response of the police should have been to caution the supervisor for wasting police time.
A.D. Dunster
Bournemouth, Dorset
Praise for the château
From Olga Polizzi
Sir: I am so pleased that Andrew Roberts liked the Château de Bagnols (Diary, 23 September). It is a wonderful hotel. But the praise for the design should go to Helen Hamlyn alone. She bought and restored the château as a real labour of love. Unfortunately, I cannot claim any credit.
Olga Polizzi
Rocco Forte Hotels, London SW1
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