2 JULY 1965, Page 24

New Left, Old Right

SIR,—Alan Watkins's review of the Fontana/New Left Review book Towards Socialism makes only two substantive criticisms, both of which are based on simple factual errors.

1. He asserts that the word 'freedom' is mentioned only once in the book. It would be tedious to list all the occasions on which the word is used, but I suggest he looks (for the first time?) at pages 394, 321, 319, 359, 289, 315, etc. etc. There are explicit discussions of the nature and meaning of the con- cept of freedom in the essays of Raymond Williams, Richard Titmuss, Ken Coates, Andre Gorz and Perry Anderson.

2. Watkins writes: 'the Ncw Left's answer is . . . well, this is never made very clear, but the logical conclusion is a one-party state.' This is directly con- tradicted by the following unequivocal statement: 'Socialism requires the full preservation of civic liberties and a plurality of political parties: all the living heritage of liberal democracy.' (Perry Ander- son, p. 246.) We can only invite subscribers to the Spectator to read Towards Socialism and judge for them- selves if Watkins's account of it is in any sense fair