19 JUNE 1993, Page 23

Principled remark

Sir: Last week you published an article I wrote about John Major's difficulties under the headline 'A man of no principles, des- perately looking for the string' (Politics, 12 June).

It may be that you inferred that I thought Mr Major was without principles from my remark that Conservative backbenchers were unable to associate their leader with anything they recognised as principle: but I did, I hope, make it clear that they were wrong in this; that Mr Major was not with- out principle, but that his articulation of Ideas was weak.

It is a serious thing to say that a man is without principles. I did not say it of Mr Major and I do not believe it of him. Matthew Parris The Spout, Grafton, Bakewell, Derbyshire