Kmflett's Blog

NOT  calling last orders on Fletters

The below of course was posted on April 1st so I can confirm that I’m NOT calling time on writing letters, yet. Even so, the points made here remain relevant.

While the Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Morning Star and Mirror do continue to carry on with sometimes lively letters pages, elsewhere the decline is noticeable- where print publications continue. The New Statesman for example, which had a robust letters space, now often carries only a few. People comment on-line or on social media.

My socialist letter writing mission has been taken up by others, notably Sasha Simic who is doing a great job

Nevertheless the reality is that much comment is now on-line and that poses significant issues for future generations who want to discover what people were thinking and saying before them.

Very far from all letters written either personally or for publication survive for posterity, but many do. The collected letters of Marx and Engels (which are far from comprehensive- there are gaps) is a fascinating resource for historians. If they were corresponding in 2024 would the e-mails have been kept?

By contrast while some electronic comment is archived there is no guarantee that it will be available in future decades as technology moves on…

I will be continuing to write Fletters for now but the interest my original post sparked underlines that a move away from the era when more or less the only way a voice from below, as it were, could get a hearing was to write a letter for publication, is with us. If you’re reading this it makes the point!