Assertion by negative of opposite

Sir, – I had just finished reading Frank McNally’s Irishman’s Diary column (always a pleasure) on Saturday (December 7th) about the Irish practice of making an assertion, and perhaps softening it, by negativing the opposite, when I heard a representative of dairy farmers being interviewed on the wireless and saying that a strike by ESB workers would not be helpful. – Yours, etc,

PN CORISH,

Oaklands Drive,

Rathgar, Dublin 6.