Blow to West
Sir: Quite apart from the inaccuracies in Richard West's recollection of the story I told him about the late Nye Bevan ('Close- knit parasites', 1 September) — he couldn't even get the name of the river that flows through Ebbw Vale right! — I wish to protest about the context in which he chose to attribute it to me. Certainly, during a mutual propping-up of a Barnsley bar, I agreed to his quoting the story, but to use it to prop up arguments with which I entirely disagree strikes me as bordering on unprofessionalism.
Indeed, his reference to the National Union of Journalists as a 'mischievous and unnecessary organisation', in an article to which I am, however obliquely, called in aid, is particularly pernicious since Dick is perfectly well aware that I am a branch chairman and former national executive member of the union, of which I have been an active member for more than 20 years. Like the vast majority of British journal- ists, I do not work in a closed shop, despite Dick's claim that that is the only reason why more than 90 per cent of us belong to the union. Like them, I believe in the ideals of the NUJ: not least its attempts — despite the cynicism of the Press Council and similar bodies — to inject decency and honesty into British journalism through its Code of Conduct.
Unlike Dick, I am not prepared to make sweeping statements about the 'probable' views of the mass of my colleagues, but I can assure him and you, sir, that many of us who live in the coalfields, and hence understand the present situation rather better than fleetingly visiting London periodical correspondents, have consider- able sympathy with what he misleadingly calls 'Arthur Scargill's strike'.
I recognise the irony of a journalist complaining about being quoted out of context, but I hope you will find the space to print this letter, in vindication of my own good name among both my profes- sional colleagues and my neighbours.
Bill Blow
24 Park Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire
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