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‘Come with us,’ the policeman beckoned. ‘Now, sir, you will appreciate that everyone working here is very stressed. In the circumstances, your question wasn’t very clever, was it?’
‘I realise that.’
‘Now off you go and enjoy your holiday and don’t ask any more stupid questions.’
Huge relief was followed by a severe dressing-down from my wife. With hindsight, my question was probably crass and certainly ill-judged. But equally, what has happened to freedom of speech in this country that a piece of (misplaced) badinage can provoke such a heavy response? And is it really worth wasting everybody’s time and keeping Heathrow staff from protecting us from real terrorists, just to teach me better manners?
Andrew Hamilton
Edinburgh
Healthier and tastier
From Fi Bird
Sir: Prue Leith (‘Ingredients, ingredients, ingredients’, 9 September) suggests that a whole section of the population prefers to stick with junk food. May I suggest that those on a lower income actually spend a higher proportion of their wages on food? If you introduce a healthier food choice for a child, research suggests that the child may say ‘Yuck’ eight to ten times before accepting the food. The less affluent parent can’t afford to replace the food that has been trashed by ‘yuck factor’ tastebuds. In a Stirrinstuff Lottery-funded children’s cookery workshop, we work in partnership with local growers and producers to encourage children to try ‘real’ food in circumstances where tea will still be on the table even their initial reaction is to say ‘Yuck’.
Fi Bird
Kirriemuir, Angus
Vestey remembered
From Christina D. Tyree
Sir: I was very saddened to learn of the sudden death of Michael Vestey recently. I write as a TV viewer and as a listener to Radio Four. I remember Michael well — always immaculately dressed, with dark hair and a beautiful speaking voice. His TV reports were easy to follow, clear and informative. He had a distinctive broadcasting style; it was a pleasure to hear him. Reminiscing with my mother (83), I had said ‘he was of the old school of the BBC’ and she had agreed, so I had to smile when I read Rod Liddle’s tribute (‘He dared speak the truth about the BBC’, 2 September). It is very sad that high standards of written and spoken English are little appreciated nowadays. Michael Vestey was indeed an upholder of those standards and will be greatly missed. I send my sympathy to his colleagues and relatives.
Christina D. Tyree
London SE19
Pauline peccadilloes
From Michael Henderson
Sir: Paul Johnson may love Lancashire (And Another Thing, 9 September) but his grasp of its history and people is shaky. The Manchester suburb is Wythenshawe, not Withenshaw. The famous beauty spot is Coniston Water, not Lake — never Lake. The celebrated theatre producer was Annie Horniman, not Horriman. Stan Laurel never trained ‘under’ Charlie Chaplin, who was only one year older, though they both belonged to Fred Karno’s Company of Clowns. As for Mr Johnson’s tin ear regarding native speech, no true Lankie — or Yorkie, for that matter — says ‘oop’ for ‘up’, or uses the word ‘thou’: ‘tha’ is another matter. One wonders whether he has set foot in the Red Rose county since his schooldays.
Michael Henderson
London W13
Gin and cucumber
From Kenneth Savidge
Sir: John Vernon (Letters, 9 September) would find quite a lot about The Englishman’s Home on page 559 of New Fame, New Love (volume 2 of Bevis Hillier’s biography of John Betjeman).
Incidentally, though I never drank champers from pewter tankards with JB, he did introduce me to the Ipswich, a drink I had never encountered before: cubes of well-salted cucumber washed down with neat gin.
Kenneth Savidge
Bristol
Local hero
From Martin Booth
Sir: The poet John Lydgate mentioned by Dot Wordsworth (2 September) may well be ‘now unread’ but will be forever commemorated by the small Suffolk village of Lidgate from whence he came. A small brass image of him can be found in the village church just before the altar. I heartily recommend the Star Inn in the village for refreshment for pilgrims.
Martin Booth
Hartest, Suffolk
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