Notebook
If Mr Heath would like to establish a good relationship with Mrs Thatcher he will have t° do better than he did in the last issue of the Sunday Express in an article of unexampled banality. 'I welcome the review of Conservative policy being carried out under Margaret Thatcher,' he wrote—while asserting with Some emphasis that the Tories don't really need much in the way of policies beyond a belief in patriotism', a 'love of freedom', a sense of community'.
Mr Heath may be right—and if right, reformed. But his views come strangely from someone who (it could be said without much exaggeration) had to hire a fleet of pantechnicons to cart his policies to Downing Street in June 1970, crate upon crate of them, trunk after trunk. No Prime Minister has ever assumed office with a greater load of readY-made (or reach-me-down) policies!uany of them later cast off as unbecoming or 111-fitting.
Mr Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the new British Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, who was murdered in Dublin on Wednesday, was both a war hero and a novelist. He lost his right eye at the battle of Alamein, and had (under a pseudonym) written three thrillers. Although he cultivated an eccentric, and even stagy, manner, Ewart-Biggs vvas regarded as a very high flyer in the British Embassy in Paris, where he had been minister before his posting to Dublin. Once 9.Pon a time the Dublin Embassy was considered to be a quiet backwater, suitable for diplomats close to retirement. The decision to send Ewart-Biggs there represented the Conviction of the British government that bublin had become a key position. In his few weeks in the Irish capital Ewart-Biggs !lad already achieved considerable popularirY; and it is particularly tragic that a terrorist landmine should have cut off the life of so flamboyant and promising a figure.
Lord Thorneycroft is under fire as Chairman of the Conservative Party. He is being accused of lacking the galvanising drive for ivbiCh many Tories are hankering—as if that alone would guarantee their return to office. He has no need to feel unduly dismayed, nowever. Criticism of this sort, often illConsidered, is a cross that successive chairmen have had to bear. Even the now legendary Lord Woolton, appointed by Churchill himself, was not immune. Nor were two of the party's most eminent figures of recent years, Butler and lain Macleod: both were subjected to attack from time to time, seldom with justification.
Having said that, Lord Thorneycroft's organisation is not yet 'right'. Until he has been able to improve it, especially in the sphere of publicity, he must expect the murmurings to continue. It is undeniably true, moreover, that many Conservatives would prefer a younger chairman. Lord Thorneycroft will be sixty-seven on Monday.
A senior Italian official is quoted in the Times as saying that Herr Schmidt 'hates Italy'. So indeed it would appear. Nothing could have been more unhelpful to the anti-Communist cause in Italy than the Chancellor's revelation of a secret agreement among Italy's allies to deny her any economic aid if the Communists enter the Government. It‘ has had the effect of making Italy's Christian Democrat leadership look guilty of either weakness or duplicity. The Italian Prime Minister was obliged to deny any knowledge of a secret meeting in Puerto Rico between France, Germany, Britain and the United States at which Italy's situation was discussed. If the allies failed to consult him, it reveals their contempt for him. If he in fact was consulted, he has been forced by Herr Schmidt to lie. One of the sad effects of the Chancellor's incredible ham-fistedness will be to disillusion many Italians about the European Common Market, a cause to which Italy has contributed more than most countries.
Sir Harold Wilson is a generous fellow. When a bomb exploded outside Mr Heath's London house, damaging somebody else's car, Mr Wilson (as he then was) offered the ex-Prime Minister a free car for security reasons. Other ex-Prime Ministers—Lord Avon, Mr Macmillan and Lord Home— were not notified, but when Sir Harold retired earlier this year the privilege was extended to him. And a privilege it certainly is. The car is provided with chauffeur, garaging, cleaning, petrol, oil, etc, all on the
taxpayer, at a total cost of £10,600 Per annum. This is on top of the MPs' salaries that Mr Heath and Sir Harold receive, their Prime Ministers' pensions of £7,500 a year, and their very substantial private earnings.
Imagine what a gross income would be needed to provide £10,600 a year after tax. A Prime Minister in office does not, technically, have a car of his own, but has one allotted from the government pool. If free cars are to be given to ex-Prime Ministers who have been concerned with Northern Ireland, then why not also ex-Defence Ministers, exNorthern Ireland Secretaries, ex-Chiefs of Staff, and many others ? An alternative view is that such generosity is out of place when public expenditure has to be cut. .
Mr Peter Shore's Department of the Environment has been seeking a drawing office assistant, an appointment within the salary range £1,492 to £2,461. To secure his (or her) talents, the Department advertised in the Evening Standard and the Daily Mirror on 1 April. The indefatigable Mr William Clark, Conservative MP for South Croydon, has just ascertained the cost of these advertisements: £484 and £660 respectively—more than £1000 in all.
For some years attempts have been made— many ingenious and with honest purpose— to break the statutory monopoly given to solicitors to do conveyancing work for a fee. The latest effort, by the House Owners Cooperative Society Ltd, failed this week in the Divisional Court. The house owners' societies argue—and the claim is persuasive—that most routine house conveyancing is done by unqualified clerks in solicitors' firms, and that the scale fees charged by solicitors are too high. According to the Law Society the monopoly exists solely for the protection of the public. It is a fact that solicitors generally earn more from conveyancing than from litigation, and that conveyancing often subsidises less profitable work. This, in turn, means that house owners are effectively financing the services given to other clients —services which in some cases are provided by legal aid. The problem of the conveyancing monopoly is one to which the Royal Commission on the legal profession has been directed to give its attention, and to which a definitive solution must be found.
One thing 1976 will be remembered for is the resurgence of insect life of all sorts, after the grave depredations caused by excessive use of insecticides. There are ladybirds everywhere, scores of them in the street outside our office. Above all, though, it is the year of the butterfly. The Wiltshire Downs last weekend were a lepidopterist's paradise : Peacocks and varied Fritillaries everywhere, and--just in season—Chalkhill Blues in almost unimaginable profusion. There were, too, all the chalkdown birds, whose songs seemed dim in recent years. It is good to know that the spring is no longer silent, and the summer not colourless.
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