27th September 2024

Recent events have made me remember Miss Moss. She was my grandmother’s paid companion when I was a teenager. Miss Moss specialised in statements which began “They say the government is going to… They say the Council is going to… The garage is going to shut/sell alcohol/be taken over… They say Mr Nadin (a local builder) is going to…” The ‘facts’ were always gloomy and were 99% wrong.

She had two sisters of a similar disposition and either they sat round a cauldron and invented their claims or just gathered and misinterpreted facts from elsewhere. My sister and I were unsure on this point.

They couldn’t do much harm as their circle of acquaintance was not very large but they influenced my grandmother and probably others who lived near.

Imagine them on the Internet. “They say the Nag’s Head is closing and they are going to use it for asylum seekers.” “They say the Methodists have sold the chapel and it’s going to be a mosque.” Just silly women but much more dangerous!

The spreading of rumours has been a problem for a long time. The Epistle of James is written to a group who had trouble with this: ‘The tongue is a small member but it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire.’

The writer goes on to warn that while good and bad comes from the mouth the tongue is hard to tame and can be ‘a restless evil’.

So old problem, new technology.

Margaret Clements