Tory policies
From Viscountess Bangor Sir: It is rather late to congratulate you on the series of brilliant and courageously outspoken comments on the horrifying Heath leadership — from Patrick Cosgrave, Lord Coleraine, etc, etc.
But as no one has yet done so, I feel I must point out what seems to me an important error made by everyone.
Did Mr Heath really win even one out of the four elections? Surely not. Surely everyone knows that Enoch Powell won the 1970 election, persuading many like. myself, who had always voted Socialist, to change sides in spite of the Tory leadership.
Among Mr Heath's many failings, his utter intolerance of any other talent must rank high, and especially his vicious attitude to the man who (in spite of his recent sad aberrations) still holds the popular imagination as no one has since Churchill. Alas for his party and for his country, Mr Heath's only claim to a place in history may prove to be the driving of Mr Powell into the wilderness, where I am afraid he is now likely to remain. Marjorie Bangor 33 Jubilee Place, London SW3
Sir: Mr Michael Parker (November 9) is, apparently, "rather bored" by recent Spectator commentaries concerning Mr Heath and the Common Market. Since questions like the nature of theirparty'S leadership or the future of their country's institutions are too mundane for them, it must be rather difficult to know what to offer such sensitive and selective persons as Mr Parker.
Mr Parker gloomily predicts an "end to the Conservative Party" if anyone is foolish enough to listen to the views of Mr Neil Marten or Mr Ronald Bell.
It can at least be said that Mr Parker was not listening — or was he just "bored"? — to Mr Ronald Bell's address to the University Conservative Association recently. Far from, as Mr Parker claims, trying to "turnthe clock back," he emphasised the need to rid ourselvesof the irrelevant preoccupations of the pre-war economy.etchoenre is
omy.
any evidence that Mr Parker's wing of the party has anything new to offer, their criticisms may be taken seriously. Until then I fear Mr Parker will have to continue being "bored," while the rest of us try to revive our party's fortunes.
Robin Harris Exeter College, Oxford
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