Ex-President, Oxford University Monday Club, Hertford College, Oxford.
Sir: Thank you for giving us in your post-election editorial concerning the 'Squatter at No. 10' a concise summary of the true significance of the country's decision. Mr Carr tries to tell us that the number of votes cast is a better judge of a government's right to rule than the number of seats won — surely the most dubiously constitutional justification ever used by an ostensibly 'Conservative' Minister. Meanwhile the Liberals pretend that in some conveniently obscure way they represent the 'true' will of the people directed towards an equally undefined end of 'moderation.' And perhaps when dealing with a party which is committed to refusing the people a chance to come to their own 'decision' about the EEC, one which seeks to devolve the traditional prerogatives of Parliament to local assemblies, one which contains in its youth movement such as Mr Peter Hain, the point is not altogether an academic one. One thing is clear. Mr Heath will
.never win another election. He is already an anachronism and in but a little time he will be swept up into the dustbin of history, forgotten and unregretted. The Tories should be very
clear that only by choosing a leader
whose credibility is not tarnished by involvement in the electorial fiasco can they, quite literally, survive as the party of government. Moreover, much as the present shadow cabinet may dislike the idea, they will have to come to terms with the supporters of Mr Powell who voted Labour over the Common Market and the economy at the last election. A new leader above all will have to re-assert, what Mr Heath and his henchmen for the first time managed to put in doubt, the Conservative devotion to Freedom and Patriotism. Reconstruction after the Heathite deluge is no easy matter; but unless it succeeds your own version of Mr Heath's political obituary mutatis mutandis might well apply to his party also.
Robin Harris Ex-Chairman, Oxford Conservative Trident Group, Exeter College, Oxford.
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