{"id":145,"date":"2014-07-28T16:31:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T16:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shirtyletters.com\/?p=145"},"modified":"2014-12-19T18:38:27","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T18:38:27","slug":"melissa-kite-the-spectator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/?p=145","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Melissa Kite, The Spectator"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F145&print=pdf\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/pdf.png\" alt=\"image_pdf\" title=\"View PDF\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F145&print=print\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><\/a><\/div><p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2013\/02\/27\/article-2285434-173B3283000005DC-514_306x601.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"314\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>I have included this letter to highlight the decline in manners since Bernard Levin&#8217;s era. \u00a0He at least had the courtesy to respond.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Dear Melissa,<\/p>\n<p>May I get the \u2018brown-nosing\u2019 sycophancy out of the way at the outset &#8230; I do enjoy your articles and column in The Spectator very much. How you manage to be on top form most weeks is astonishing. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Your recent rant at that idiot at TFL about picking up your dog food in a \u2018Red Route Loading Bay\u2019 struck a chord \u2013 so I have attached my thread some time ago with a similar complaint which I hope may amuse you. I was a minicab driver for many years so accumulated many tickets, most of which I \u2018challenged\u2019 successfully &#8230; eventually.<\/p>\n<p>Overleaf on this page is a recent failure. My girlfriend treated me to supper at The Caprice, Arlington Street on my 60th birthday &amp; we were greeted with a ruddy parking ticket on our exit. What a dampener to an excellent meal.<\/p>\n<p>If you have a moment please visit my WordPress \u2018blog\u2019 \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shirtyletters.com\">www.shirtyletters.com<\/a> where we are posting some of my \u2018Henry Root\u2019 stuff \u2013 it\u2019s all very well and easy to slag off Tony Blair but perhaps some of my epistles to ordinary folk may be more interesting ? Any comments gratefully received.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks again, Melissa.<\/p>\n<p>Yours,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jamie Summers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/No_reply_image-3.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-99\" src=\"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/No_reply_image-3.png\" alt=\"No_reply_image (3)\" width=\"113\" height=\"134\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; I have included this letter to highlight the decline in manners since Bernard Levin&#8217;s era. \u00a0He at least had the courtesy to respond. &nbsp; Dear Melissa, May I get the \u2018brown-nosing\u2019 sycophancy out of the way at the outset &#8230; I do enjoy your articles and column in The Spectator very much. How you &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/?p=145\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Letter to Melissa Kite, The Spectator<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}