Vol. 24 No. 12 · 27 June 2002
pages 13-16 | 5588 words
A Hit of Rus in Urbe
Iain Sinclair
‘Best Value’. Somebody somewhere, well away from the action, decided that this banal phrase, implying its opposite, was sexy. Best Value, with the smack of Councillor Roberts’s corner-shop in Grantham, the abiding myth of Thatcherism, has been dusted down and used in every PR puff of the New Labour era. Best Value. Best buy. Making the best of it. Look on the bright side. Spin doctors, post-literate and self-deceiving, had no use for subtlety. Best Value. They hammered the tag into their inelegant, over-designed freebies. These glossy publications, political correctness in all its strident banality, existed to sell the lie. Best Value.
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Letters
Vol. 24 No. 13 · 11 July 2002
From Justin Horton
I am far from being an apologist for Middlesbrough, which on its day is as grim as any place in England, but I wonder if I am alone in detecting a little metropolitan snobbishness – and laziness – in Iain Sinclair's casual invocation of the town in relation to Stephen Byers's resignation (LRB, 27 June). Even if one took the view that 'a train ride back to his constituents in the North-East' was some sort of 'ultimate humiliation' – why? – I don't see what that would have to do with Middlesbrough, a place some forty miles away from Wallsend. One may as well assume Picketts Lock is the same as Camden Lock, or conflate Lea Valley Regional Park and Richmond Park. But, this being London, Sinclair seeks to distinguish every aspect of Lea Valley and celebrate its individual characteristics: the same courtesy is not extended to the provinces, which can all be lumped together as we wish. And if we're going to disrespect the place, we might as well have the decency to spell it right. Whatever else the town may be, it isn't 'Middlesborough'.
Justin Horton
London W3
Vol. 24 No. 14 · 25 July 2002
From Richard Storey
They may pronounce it 'monkjack' in Essex, but the correct name of the shy deer referred to by Iain Sinclair (LRB, 27 June) is muntjac. This small creature of South-East Asian origin has spread widely from Bedfordshire since the 1920s, and as far north as Warwickshire it is now considered a sufficient traffic hazard to merit its own warning signs. On another point of detail, the inn at Ferry Lane would never have been a haunt of 'narrowboat skippers': the River Lea carried barges of much greater beam than those of the national canal system.
Richard Storey
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
