Letters: BRIEFLY

Saturday 10 October 1998 18:02 EDT
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WHEN I read the phrase "morals of the underclass" in your letters page (4 October) I wondered if I was now completely out of touch after 14 years abroad. Is no one else shocked, or is this what to expect under New Labour - New Snobs?

DIANE POULTNEY-MAGNE

Thedirac, France

YOUR correspondent says that the Channel Tunnel rail link will cost pounds 150m per minute saved (letters, 4 October). I presume that this is true if there is no increase in the number of passengers carried. If, on the other hand, the cutting of 35 minutes from the journey time leads to many more people using the train instead of the plane then the economics are completely different, and this is the justification for building the link.

DAVID H WILD

Hemel Hempstead, Herts

PHIL JOHNSON is incorrect in his description of the Dave Brubeck Quartet as the first American act to tour the UK after the lifting of the British Musicians' Union ban ("Dave, the jazzmen's fave", Culture, 4 October). The restrictions were removed in 1956, and the first band to tour was that of Stan Kenton. Following that visit came Louis Armstrong, Eddie Condon, Count Basie and Gerry Mulligan before Brubeck arrived in 1958 - I still have the concert programmes to prove it. There were tours in 1958 by Jazz at the Philharmonic and Duke Ellington; we jazz lovers never had it so good before or since those heady years.

ALAN MILLS

Lyme Regis, Dorset

THE Right Rev Hugh Montefiore, mentioned in your interesting article about religious converts ("Society girl Santa joins the ranks of religious converts", 4 October) will be surprised to be called the Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham. He is of course the Anglican Bishop of Birmingham. Give us of the C of E at least one convert!

PAUL KELLY

Wells, Somerset

JEREMY CLARKE'S piece on defecation (4 October) referred to "Speak up, Brown! You're through!" When I was in the Royal Air Force, this phrase was the customary response to a fart. I understand it to refer to the sounds made on initial contact by field telephones or ground-to-air radio.

JOHN GARRETT

Norwich, Norfolk

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