29 JANUARY 1994, Page 24

Sir: There is nothin g new about ri g ht-wing parties in power

having difficulties with `Back to Basics'. An epidemic of divorces among party leaders was the subject of discussions between Hitler and Goebbels in February 1937. Adolf 'Back to Basics' Hitler saw marriages as providing a certain stability, whereas Goebbels, as a wet, blamed women who were too stupid and too graceless to keep their husbands. Goebbels successfully opposed a propos- al to punish adultery with ten years in jail and even Hitler refused to order his press secretary to return to his wife — on the grounds that it was not he who had married them.

Malcolm Hurlston

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