Letters: Briefly

CAN Dave Godin (Letters, 22 March) be right to equate the need for black people to tell black stories to Joseph Goebbels and his views? The creative talents of people of African descent are frequently ignored and marginalised. It is not fascist to suggest that we are able to speak for ourselves, that we have stories to tell, pictures to make and that white people do not have a monopoly in telling our stories. That is why I did not call for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino's film Jackie Brown.

Linda Bellos

Black Filmmaker Publications

ALAN Watkins (22 March) states that no Labour chancel- lor ever became prime minister. He has forgotten James Callaghan. He was Chancellor from 1964-67 and Prime Minister from 1976-79.

Julian B Roland

London SE23

THE barber joke that Will Buckley attributes to Kingsley Amis (Section 2, 22 March) dates back to Tudor times and can be found in Joe Miller's Joke Book. One would expect a professional critic to know this.

Alan Stockwell

Smarden, Kent

IF, AS David Lister says ("All talk and cheap gestures", 22 March), it is the desire of people in this country "to see the arts relieved of perpetual financial crisis", then why shouldn't they pay for it direct, rather than through taxation?

AC Withall, Sheffield