Letters to the Editor

The Monday Club

Sir: Mr Patrick Cosgrave says, "Whatever is going on in the Monday Club has nothing to do with the manoeuvres of the proPowell group." Of course it has not; the club deliberately keeps from supporting personalities as such though we will often endorse the stand of a particular man on a particular issue — as with Enoch Powell on immigration. So to call this an "index of the nub's failure " is to attribute to the club aspirations it has never had.

What Mr Cosgrave refers to as the "emphatic concentration of the club on the immigration issue " is largely a function of the great newsworthiness of that particular issue, coupled with the fact that it is one of the comparatively few on which the club is virtually unanimous. (Education, defence, subversion, and, with certain nuances, law and order are others.)

As to my alleged change of front from a 'right-wing' philosophy, Mr Cosgrave appears to suppose that there is a ' rightwing' package of views which if you hold in one respect you must hold in all. I believe in the desirability of the greatest possible degree of free enterprise — but also that in a developed economy a framework of controls is inevitable. Banging on as if nothing had happened since Cobden is a recipe for oblivion. At Lincoln I said Heath's package was fair and well-meaning, but I also criticised it. I object to it being controlled from Whitehall rather than hammered out by a continuing political process of collective bargaining between the various interests. I also think incomes policy ought to be regarded as a corrective to imbalances brought about by industrial and business power, not a device to control inflation — a purpose for which it is not suited.

Many in the Monday Club disagree with these views and debate is continuous and informed.

Mr Cosgrave mentions my "bright idea of encouraging murderers to suicide by leaving razor blades in their cells." It ought not to be necessary to underline that what I was on about was the inhumanity of preventing criminals condemned to death from

committing suicide by depriving them of razor blades. I realise the

dividing line between not depriv ing and providing is thin, if not non-existent, but I have supposed that at least the intelligent public have seen perfectly well what I was getting at. As, I am sure, did Mr Cosgrave, but then he is trying to prove a point, isn't he?

There is also a bit about our not "attracting and retaining the best minds on the right." Apart

from Mr Powell, who never joins any group on principle, Mr

Cosgrave's list of such minds reads as follows: Mr John Biffen, the Earl of Lauderdale, Mr John Peyton and Mr Richard Body. True, the first of these has never been a member and the second and third resigned. But number four, Mr Richard Body, is as Mr Cosgrave admits a member; and if he only joined to stand for the chairmanship last year, surely he would have either resigned when he lost, or stood again this year?

Mr Cosgrave says we are powered more by emotion than thought. I don't know what his article is supposed to be powered by if he can say the club " has never decided whether it wants to act as a pressure group within the Conservative Party, or whether it wants to take the party over." Surely the ultimate success of a pressure group within a party, which is what we are, is to take it over. Does Chelsea want to play football, or to win the Cup?

Jonathan Guinness Osbaston Hall, Market Bosworth, Nr. Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Sir: Mentioning the National Front, albeit briefly, in the context of the Monday Club and right-wing politics, Patrick Cosgrave gives the impression that this organisation is situated in the same sector of the political spectrum. Nothing could be further from the truth!

It is unfortunate that we are customarily referred to by the largely hostile media as ' rightwing,' seemingly on the grounds that our attitudes on many issues like immigration, law and order and Southern Africa are commonly termed right-wing. But others, equally important, like worker participation in the management of industry and public control of finance and credit might well be described as 'leftwing'!

In fact our political philosophy could well be termed 'revolutionary,' since it aims to bring about root changes in the political, industrial and financial system. Millions of people vote under the delusion that the major parties represent genuine alternatives. In fact a bogus conflict is maintained by exploiting the class structure of our society, keeping the nation artificially divided into ' Left ' and ' Right ' by encouraging each section to believe that ' its ' party is generally preferable to the others.

If Britain is to survive, a party like the National Front must emerge as a genuine electoral counterforce to challenge the internationalist oriented policies of the Political Establishment. A party free from class traditions with the ability to unite our whole people into a truly national community. A party which places prime emphasis on the nation and with the radical approach to carry out the great changes in policy necessary if Britain is to be restored to her former eminence and prosperity.

Philip Baker Secretary, Berks and South Oxon National Front, 243 Loddon Bridge Road, Woodley, Berks.