Road to ruin
From Mr Michael McAllen Sir: It is preposterous of Bruce Anderson (Politics, 25 November) to suggest that 'the ERM was a mere sideshow' and that 'by 1990 it was necessary to join'. Our member- ship of the ERM was a total and utter calamity. It turned a recession into a need- less depression and destroyed a million jobs and tens of thousands of businesses. And, in the end, quite rightly, it destroyed Major's government. Anderson, with his insulting remarks about 'pampered southerners', clearly has no conception of the sheer scale of the social devastation that resulted from that insane policy — lost jobs, lost business- es, lost homes and, quite often, lost lives and lost wives and children. And for what purpose? Partly, as ever, the macho desire to prove that we're good Europeans, and partly because Chancellors Lawson and Major couldn't trust themselves not to print money in the run-up to an election. Without the intervention of those won- derful speculators, Major would clearly have continued much further down the eco- nomic road to hell. He is entitled to no credit whatsoever for the subsequent revival of the economy. It happened despite him, not because of him. He was, alas, a likable but thoroughgoing mediocrity, the living proof of the Peter Principle — a man pro- moted beyond the level of his ability. He'll be remembered for nothing except the National Lottery.
Michael McAllen
Diss, Norfolk
From Mr Calm Costello Sir: It's about time a serious journalist came to the defence of John Major's pre- miership, and I can think of no better man for the job than Bruce Anderson. Mr Major didn't like journalists much, and, it seems, the feeling was mutual, but his record is a good one and should be reported as such. Bruce Anderson compares accurately the situation that John Major inherited to the one he left behind and the difference shows how successful John Major really was.
Colm Costello
London W7
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