Too much truth is uncouth.
Newspaper people once celebrated as founts of ribald humor and uncouth fun have of late lost all their gaiety and small wonder.
It's become unfashionable to celebrate political achievement and Labour achievement even less so. And it's positively uncouth to be proud of something that this Labour government is doing. So slam me for saying so but I'm really proud of the NHS.
We read deeply for varied reasons most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough that we need to know ourselves better that we require knowledge not just of self and others but of the way things are.