I SEE that young Mr Field is pontificating about a return to the work ethic. A bit reminiscent of Mrs Thatcher's family values, isn't it? Neither of them can actually remember the days when these ethics or values were supposed to have been operative.

For Mr Field's benefit (or is that the wrong word?) I will outline what the work ethic meant to hundreds of thousands of men in this country before the war. It meant turning up at the yard, factory, pit, or dockyard at 5.30 in the morning in the hope that one was at the head of the queue to be one of the six or so out of hundreds whom the foreman would pick to work for the day, and not one of the hundreds who went home.

Sure, one worked if one could. Rather like now.

J C Ballard,

8 Houston Mains, Uphall.

May 29.