IT was good to read that some people still have the bottle to stand up for what they believe.

Top marks to the Rev Philip Mason and his committee, who decided to prohibit a performance of a play containing foul language at the Victoria Hall.

Nice, too, to see so many Bolton Evening News readers backing this decision, in spite of a rather sad editorial suggesting that, in this day and age, perhaps a warning would have been more appropriate.

Too many people seem prepared to sit back and say nowt, or worse, accept as inevitable the moral decline that has reduced society to what it is today.

However, having said that, I Mayoh, of Hillside Avenue, Bromley Cross, made me smile, when he or she said foul language is "used constantly by people who are themselves common".

It is certainly not only those people who I Mayoh might consider common who use foul language. Many people who would never dream of using bad language in public places, or in the home, constantly use it at work. From the factory floor to the boardroom, from police officers to politicians, foul language is commonplace.

A recent story about Winston Churchill's parrot was very amusing. Apparently the great man taught his feathered friend some very choice expletives to describe his feelings towards Hitler.

The Princess Royal has, it has been said, on occasions, described inept members of her staff in a quite un-ladylike way.

Years ago, many public houses, especially in towns like Bolton, had "vaults" where women were forbidden. This was, in fact, so that men could express themselves freely without offending the fairer sex. How times have changed!

Brian Derbyshire

Ribchester Grove

Bolton