17 SEPTEMBER 2005, Page 18

Eupeptic Cowling

From Bruce Anderson

Sir: Although Maurice Cowling took a low view of the human condition, he was a eupeptic pessimist. His brains were never in his bile duct. He was as incapable of peevishness as Simon Heffer is of anything else (Politics, 3 September).

Mr Heffer does raise an interesting point, the supposed intellectual decline of the Tory party ‘from a state of sophistication to Year Zero’. But this question is more complex than Simon Heffer realises. Has he ever thought of comparing and contrasting Anthony Eden and Margaret Thatcher as (1) sophisticated intellectuals and (2) successful prime ministers?

Bruce Anderson London SW1