Towards unity
Sir: Tim Garton Ash suggests, in your 2 June edition, that the origins of the Conservative Party and the CDU must preclude any possibility of their forming closer ties. Is this a valid point, or one only of interest to historians? As Mr Garton Ash must know, those working for a Europe of greater unity are concerned with the dismantling of past differences. The European Community did away with the relics of a divergent and violent history. It is pessimism of the first order to suggest that because our two parties trace back to Burke and 'Frederick the Great respectively, we cannot get closer in the future. His objections have nothing to do with the Europe being built for the 21st century, a Europe whose entire philosophy is concerned with resolving differences.
Nor did I use the word 'Endsieg' whilst speaking in Germany. This Hitlerian term is not the best of words for a guest speaker in Germany to use, and I can't think why Mr Garton Ash thinks I did. Endlich den Sieg' was the phrase I recall I used, and it really is terribly irresponsible to raise superficial canards like this. It is also offensive to the CDU members who built the Federal Republic into a very stable democracy.
Perhaps Mr Garton Ash has been in Germany too short a time and still therefore gets his images of this country from a highly distorted sense of fantasy. Still, I was glad about the kind words about my command of German.
Hugh Dykes House of Commons, London SW1
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