Are Scots less given to small talk than the English (No more small talk. I want a ding-dong, 7 October)? Charles Lamb, for whom the Scots were what he called an Imperfect Sympathy, complains of this trait, and I am reminded of my Scots father, who quite often attracted hostility in his English exile on this account. For example at our Windsor post office in the 1950s, when failing to agree with other customers – and the postmistress – on the subject of the weather by bringing in some meteorological data. What he failed to understand was that small talk is just the English equivalent of wagging tails and sniffing noses. However, it is worrying that this function appears to be infiltrating discussion of topics over which we have some control. I was my father in the post office again as a remainer at my hairdresser.
Ann Dowling
Manchester
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