Grunwick
Sir: John Grigg's admirable warning to the Tories over Grunwick (10 September) will encourage floating voters such as myself to veer in their direction. Unhappily of late the party has shown a strong right-wing bias which has alarmed even some of its own supporters, notably the Tory Reform Group. It is a sad deviation from the moderate and compassionate philosophies of the late Ian Macleod and of Lord Butler.
Not long ago Peter Walker pointed out that a few extra votes might be collected by the Tories in safe seats like Bournemouth if they preached a dogma of union-defiance, free enterprise, self-help, curbing of the Welfare State, but would these hearty parrot cries appeal to waverers in marginal constituencies? Mrs Thatcher might well ponder his remarks.
J. Arthur Fletcher 6 Cranes Park, SurbIton, Surrey.
Sir: In congratulating Mrs Thatcher on her 'reverberating silence' over the Grunwick dispute, John Grigg errs, I believe. The union godfathers will contemptuously decide that 'she won't be no trouble'. Those of us who increasingly resent the power of our licensed protection gangs to use the intimidatory methods of the Mafia to recruit members and to keep their support, will despair.
By modelling herself on Uriah Heep and maintaining a deferential silence for fear of offending either the unions or the silent majority of non-members, Mrs Thatcher will win no friends in either camp. There are no bad soldiers; there are only bad officers, and political (like military) possibilities depend on the leader rather than on the led.
Pictures of Mrs Thatcher washing up will not help her win the next election. She is after the job of Prime Minister, not that of housekeeper; skilled as she might be at running her home. To many, she seems to lack not just the courage of her convictions; she lacks the necessary convictions in the first place.
C. W. Bond 88 Lower Bristol Road Weston-super-Mare, Avon
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