10 DECEMBER 1983, Page 22

All talk, no action

Sir: It is not merely clever people who are getting bored with the Prime Minister (Charles Moore, 'Political commentary', 26 wondering how it is that Mrs Thatcher has managed to enjoy such intense popularity among the Right for so long. Rarely, if ever, has there been such a vacuum between rhetoric and action as is manifest in the per- son of the Prime Minister.

Her record from the standpoint of a Tory traditionalist is abysmal: capitulation to the miners in 1979 may be seen, in context, as a small blemish perhaps; her support and, at times, adulation of (now) Lord Whitelaw certainly is not — a more ineffective Home Secretary I cannot recall, with the result that the Tory claim to be the party of law and order is shown to be the sham it really is. Moreover, Mrs Thatcher has presided over an immigration and race relations policy which has broken every serious pledge made at the 1979 election (quota system of entry, restriction on right of entry of male fiances, register of dependants, etc); she has acquiesced in a policy on Northern Ireland which is compromising, ineffective and lacking in purpose; she secured, through the Foreign Secretary, a treacherous settlement in Zimbabwe- Rhodesia which was contrary to everything the party offered while in opposition and which has led to the imposition of a quasi- Marxist state to the detriment of most whites and hundreds of thousands of blacks, now enslaved in far worse conditions than before; she showed her contempt for the vast majority of the electorate, which supports a restoration of capital punishment, by her poignant silence the weekend before the parliamentary vote when the organised establishment assailed the nation's ears with its clamour against restoration; and expectation deferred, yet again, for the umpteenth time, for those who thought she would support cricket and rugby tours of South Africa before non- segregated crowds.

The Conservative Party badly needs new leadership. Those who support Tory economics and traditionalist attitudes have every right to be nauseated by the Whig- monetarist syndrome in, economics (which, inflation apart, has proved deficient and deceptive) and the wet-liberal neurosis on home affairs policy which pervades this Government and of which Mrs Thatcher herself is either a willing exponent or passive adherent. Her Grenada blunder might serve to cause a re-think amongst the Tory masses.

S. M.Swerling

40 Chalk Hill, Wat ford, Hertfordshire