G J C Reid's letter rankles (The bright side, May 27). It embodies the indolent complacency buried in such cliches as ''everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds'' and ''as long as the rich are good and the poor are patient everything will be all right in the end''.

I am probably doing Mr Reid an injustice for which I apologise but on the day the Sinatra news broke, God alone knows (literally) how many died in Northern Sudan and the leaders of the world's richest countries were gathered in Birmingham tip-toeing around the question of ameliorating Third World debt.

We, the public, can only be dumbed down by the news managers if we - complacently - let them!

Peter J Duffy,

187 Maxwell Avenue, Glasgow.

May 27.