Letters | 6 November 2010

House style
Sir: How quaint that Simon Jenkins writes ‘working class’ without irony (‘Who do you Trust?’, 30 October). He must be among the very last to do so. But then he is chairman of that stultified repository of selective memory, the National Trust. I wonder why he thinks ‘working class’ means stupid.

Jenkins, of course, struggles under the terrible burden of always being right. But let’s see if a little astute correction might deflate the bubble of embracing self-love he so very complacently inhabits.

Any event-organiser knows that free drinks (and possibly live sex plus public executions) will get the attendance numbers up. It’s easy. But there are higher goals than mere numerical popularity.

Jenkins’s programme of bringing ‘life’ to National Trust properties lacks intellectual rigour or historical method. He rejects scrutiny and study of buildings in favour of patronising vulgarity. Children dancing? Oh, for goodness sake! Sick bag.

There is a very clear definition of what is ‘low-brow’.