LETTERS Londoner, go home
Sir: The Spectator seems a strange setting for the superficial article written by David Ren- nie (`The Tory lurch to the centre', 11 November) — perhaps it was intended for the London Evening Standard.
After a flying visit to Exeter he feels able to inform your readers what the people of Exeter feel about Labour's prospective candidate, John Lloyd, and the Conserva- tive's, Dr Adrian Rogers. Actually, he has consulted a taxi driver! What we really learn in the course of the article is what a liberal London journalist dislikes about the conser- vatism of ordinary people.
The facts on John Lloyd are that his past has caught up with him; not his brief involve- ment with African resistance, but his betrayal of comrades to save himself. Inter- views with other former resisters and their families published in the local (anti-Tory paper) make clear their disgust at his quick collusion with the South African police once he was picked up for questioning.
Exeter Labour activists have tried hard in letters to the press to ignore this aspect and to present Lloyd as a resistance hero. Lloyd's past was revealed by other socialists — he himself did not willingly come clean.
It might well be that the local taxi driver interviewed by Mr Rennie has not read his local paper very carefully. In any case, taxi drivers in Exeter are not renowned for right-wing views. The grass-roots Conserva- tive views that Mr Rennie so actively dislikes are held by so many voters that even Mr Blair and his recently converted supporter, Mr Lloyd, have begun to espouse them!
Dr Rogers's views on abortion, marriage, divorce and single parenthood may not be so popular but he has never concealed them and many local people respect his honesty, even when not agreeing with him.
It is interesting that liberal media people like Mr Rennie see moral views held by almost everyone up until the mid 1960s as `right-wing'. Let Mr Rennie continue to write for the London Evening Standard and please send a real reporter to Exeter next time.
Roger Hall
1 The Ridings, Lower Ebford Lane, Ebford, Exeter
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