MANY of the readers of your admirable weekly Andover Advertiser will have probably noticed a growing trend among British people, more especially among those who hold positions of public trust and those with the so-called ‘Celebrity Set’, who appear to have progressed from the use of prevarication to an indifference to the truth.

The lie has gone beyond the lie when it is needed, but now into the lie without reason as if by some inner compulsion, when even the listener (or reader) knows that they are lying.

The Russians have a word for it: ‘Vranyo’ which in their usage lies have acquired almost benign overtones. The lie in Russia has long gone beyond the original pupose and become an art form.

Is this the same direction that our United Kingdom society has taken with the lie?

John Haw, Stone Close, Balksbury Way, Andover