No place for ethnicity
From R.E. Bland Sir: The coincidence of A.N. Wilson’s excellent article on Michael Wharton (‘The enemy of liberal cant’, 28 January) with a letter from the twin of Keith Efflu vium, aka Andrew Wood, ‘Director, Landscape, Access and Recreation, The Countryside Agency’ (sic) provided me with wry amusement. Keith/Andrew discloses that most countryside visitors are ‘mostly’ white (do they have purple legs?), a discovery he has learnt by ‘research conducted by the Countryside Alliance’ — of course, at our expense.
In a country which is still ‘mostly white’, I do wonder if such research is really necessary. And I wonder why Mr Wood comes to a rather bizarre conclusion (and justification for his non-job) — that ‘an increase in visitors from beyond the white, middle-aged middle class would be of considerable benefit to many parts of the rural economy’. Why would the countryside benefit more from a visit by a member of an ethnic minority than it does from appreciative, well-off, middle-aged white ramblers keen to spend their money in the local pub?
R.E. Bland
London SW6
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