A very English rebuff

I received this mail from The Economist, on July 6, 2001, in response to my job application. Perhaps sensing my unsuitability, I had asked for a year's free subscription in lieu of an opening!

Dear Kannan Somasundaram,
Thank you for your recent e-mail. As you no doubt appreciate, we have a steady stream of applicants wishing to work for The Economist, but in a typical year, very few vacancies crop up. At the moment we have nothing that would be suitable to consider you for. However, we shall keep your application on file, and be back in touch with you should the situation change. We do not, as a rule, give out free subscriptions and therefore I am afraid that I will have to say no to that request too (Use of 'too' somewhat diminishes the reassurance of the rest of the mail. Rummy!)
Yours sincerely,
pp. Katie Hourigan
Bill Emmott
Editor
Dictated by Mr Emmott and sent in his absence. (He was, no doubt, busy writing a leader about poor countries.)