Tory fainthearts
Sir: Your editorial 'Trying too hard' (24 June) is indeed a bold attempt to convince Cbnservative fainthearts that 'Mrs Thatcher surely will form the next administration'. I think however that your arguments are based upon unrealistic conceptions.
It is disappointing that now that the opinion polls appear to favour a close result in a general election (with a Labour victory the most likely outcome of many) you transfer your psephological faith to bookmakers. The pedigree of both is rather suspect and it is far from certain that, 'rationally considered', the Conservatives will be successful. The party certainly does not possess a divine right either to win or to rule: its leaders have to show that they are likely to be 'a better government'. This entails, as a necessary concomitant, sound policies. In this respect, to reverse your comment, even the most intelligent voter is hard-pressed to clear his way through the contradictions in individual and collective party pronouncements. You are surely right to denigrate the latest 'quack' proposals A Time for Youth. But this is merely symptomatic of a general trend within the Conservative Party: the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. There is no factual basis for your suggestion that a Conservative government 'will bring order and responsibility: Labour will be a calamity.' Indeed, if Mrs Thatcher did fight on that platform she would surely fail — the record of the last Conservative government speaks for itself. In short, far from 'trying too hard', the Conservatives would be well advised to use the period before the general election to produce laconic and lucid policies — victory would then be deserved.
Simon-John Coates 7 Westbury House, Stortford Road, Great Dunmow, Essex
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