Sir, – In the pages of your newspaper it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see such terms as “policeman” or “fireman”. Why, then, has the term “taxman” retained its purchase? Could it be the connotations of strength, or power, perhaps? Isn’t it time that this old expression, like so many others, was done away with? Maybe tax collecting is not ready to be described as “pale, male and stale”. – Yours, etc,
PETER DECLAN O’HALLORAN,
Belturbet,
Co Cavan.