Long live the capitalists
Sir: Richard Kelly ('When its ideas are in, a party's out', 31 October) says that 'during the last decade Tories have suffered an addiction to radical doctrine . . . a new devotion to markets and individualism diluting its historic concern for "one nation" '. This is pure fiction.
Devotion to markets and individualism — sometimes known as 'freedom under the law' — is an old feature of Conservatism. Edmund Burke, usually regarded as a clas- sic Conservative, wrote in 1776 to Adam Smith full of praise for the latter's free- market treatise, The ..Wealth of Nations: 'A theory like yours,' he wrote, 'founded on the nature of man, which is always the same, will last, when those that are founded on his opinions which are always changing, will and must be forgotten.'
As for the idea of 'one nation', this phrase is usually associated with Disraeli. But he campaigned in 1874 for the aboli- tion of income tax; whereas 'one nation' as used today is a code-word for confiscating the taxpayer's property.
The value of R.A. Butler's acceptance of socialism, which Kelly praises, may be judged by Butler's 1953 Budget speech when as chancellor, continuing Labour's rationing, he set the sugar ration at 12 ounces per week. Kelly's outlook implies that it was necessary for Butler to continue Attlee's suppression of the free market in food. But the Christian Democratic conser- vatives in defeated Germany, under finance minister Erhard, introduced in 1948 a free- market policy abolishing controls and rationing — and this was achieved in the teeth of hostility from the socialist British occupying power. The fact is that German free-market conservatives in 1948 had intel- lectual courage while English conservatives in 1951 had become political cowards, allowing the Labour party to determine their policies even when in office.
David J Kidd Citroen Wells Chartered Accountants, Devonshire House, 1 Devonshire Street, London W1
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