DIARY
ALLAN MASSIE Poland and freedom owe much to Lech Walesa. Historians may well date the crumbling of the communist empire from the establishment, and triumphant surviv- al, of Solidarity. There may be some debate about his contribution in detail, but nobody can doubt that he personified the movement. I wish I could be optimistic about his prospects as President. The talent for opposition and the talent for the exercise of power are rarely joined in the same person. I have been thinking of the fate of Cola di Rienzi, subject of a novel by Bulwer Lytton and an opera by Wagner. He led a revolt of the Roman people against the oppressive rule of the nobility in 1347, was crowned tribune, and invited all the other Italian states to send deputies to Rome to devise measures for unifica- tion. But the pope turned against him, and he was overthrown after seven months. He made a comeback seven years later, but this time his rule was even shorter, and he was killed by the citizens whose cause he had championed. His statue stands on the steps of the Capitol, and there is a good chapter on him in Luigi Barzini's The Italians. Barzini thought of him as a proto-Mussolini. At the moment of course, Walesa can be sure of the Pope's backing. He will need it, and something more.
Last month was the bicentenary of the publication of Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. It is, despite pas- sages of romantic exaggeration, a work of enduring wisdom. It is also a book which could usefully be read by Chancellor Kohl and President Mitterrand, for it demons- trates better than anything else I know the essential difference between British and Continental habits of thought. 'The science of constructing a commonwealth, or re- novating it, or reforming it is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori . . . . Very plausible schemes, with very pleasing commence- ments, have often shameful and lament- able conclusions. . . . The nature of man is intricate; the objects of society are of the greatest possible complexity; and therefore no simple disposition or direction of power can be suitable either to man's nature, or to the quality of his affairs. . .' But history has made our Continental friends inveter- ate Constitution-mongers; this is why, dis- regarding Burke, they are prepared to embark on audacious schemes, like the introduction of a single European curren- cy, with what seems to us a wilful disregard for possible adverse consequences.
Abaronetcy is so obviously just the right honour for Denis Thatcher; it has a stylishness which one of these dismal life peerages cannot begin to match. The awards suggests that our new Prime Minis- ter has a sense of humour and a sense of what is fitting. Perhaps he will take a step further, throwing a sop to Europe at the same time, and convert life peers into senators. Perhaps he will look around for some other suitable baronets. Anthony Powell, who adds a keen interest in geneal- ogy to his literary distinction, is an obvious candidate. So is Charlie Wilson; anyone who can leap from the editorial chair at the Times to that of the Sporting Life seems to be the stuff that baronets are made of. Mind you, not everyone shared the enthu- siasm displayed for the rank by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd or by Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall. Trollope's Mr Thorne of Ullathorne, who 'boasted that his estate had remained in his family, descending from Thorne to Thorne, longer than any other in the country', despised it, on the grounds that it dated only from James VI and I. But I think it a jolly good distinction, and am delighted to see it so worthily revived.
Solemn folk, of whom there are too many, may protest that this gives the lie to _ Mr Major's expressed desire for a classless society. Superficially they may seem to have a case. But I think they misunder- stand him. All societies develop some sort of class structure. What matters is that movement between classes should be free and easy. The greatest division in Britain since the war has been between those who are thought capable of managing their own lives, and those whom the state has consi- dered incapable of doing so in important respects, between those who choose where they live and how their children are edu- cated, and those who are compelled by benevolently intended government decree to abandon any claim to such a choice. The Conservative Government has since 1979 done something to break down this barrier. But there is still much to be done; making all schools self-governing, direct-grant, in- dependent establishments would be a start.
hope Michael Heseltine is not going to I be seduced by those who would have a local income tax replace the poll tax. The temptation is obvious. It would be seen as , fairer, and it would cause only administra- tive inconvenience; its introduction would defuse the great row and attract the sup- port of the Liberal Democrats who have advocated it for years. But the case against such a measure is strong, and it is that for most people the tax would be painless. PAYE is favoured by governments be- cause it is easy to collect and does not distress the taxpayer, who has never seen the money extracted from him. The great merit of the poll tax is that it introduced many people for the first time to the experience of the self-employed; the pain, that is, of paying taxes. This is a gain which should not be thrown away; far better to band the poll tax, and then make local taxes deductible from income tax.
Three years ago this week our cat started to die. Our vet did all that could be done; in vain. I still miss her every day, and so does my wife. She was a small, black, fluffy Angora-Persian cross, with wonder- ful eyes; she was possessive, demanding, temperamental and loving. We got her from American friends in Rome, when she was tiny and blue-eyed and used to come with us for picnics on the Palatine, travell- ing in Alison's shoulder-bag. I put her in two novels, giving her to the Emperor himself in Augustus and to a delightful French girl in A Question of Loyalties. I let Augustus call her 'my equal, as she is the equal of Gods'. When she died, he recalled that Herodotus says 'the Ancient Egyp- tians went into mourning when their cats died; only good thing I ever heard of them.'
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