LETTERS Drifting to port
Sir: Your editorial of 1 December, 'Un- finished business', went a little way to assuage my foreboding of the last few weeks. For many, the initial shock and horror of Mrs Thatcher's political eradica- tion has transformed itself into an euphoric outburst .of amateur psephological fore- casting. The bitter taste of disloyalty is being replaced by salivation at the thought of the rich harvest to come. It is some relief that The Spectator, almost alone among the press, is still waiting for the boat to come in, and at the right harbour.
Distant rumblings are not merely Machiavelli turning in his grave. (Would he have countenanced such a stroke? Cynical opportunism and political assas- sination are not the same as removing a strong and even feared leader.) There is unfinished business aplenty.
Your editorial drew attention to econo- mic matters yet to be settled. Even allow- ing for some leftward drifting, the Right are generally contented at having a helms- man pretty much anchored in dry econo- mic dock. Where, then, are the voices concerned with likely changes in social policy? On this score, the cargo of the good ship Britannia is already shifting to the left with no signs of being secured. The crew, happy at the outcome of their mutiny, are not worried with veering off course so long as the starboard engine keeps going. A great tragedy of Mrs Thatcher's fall is that economic renewal will have little chance of being followed by any form of social or moral renewal. The necessary financial foundations remain, but new architects are now altering the plans. Thatcherism will always be a label for a political and economic philosophy, but never a social one.
And how dull it will all be now! Europe may add another dull-as-ditchwater 'prog- ressive' conservative party to its uninspired political menu. Goodbye Toryism, hello European conservatism. Welcome aboard the 21st-century Britannia. Don't forget your life-jacket.
S.J. McGlynn
64 Grove Road, Speen, Newbury, Berkshire
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