Waiting for Lefty
Sir: Did I really suggest, as Mr Shendy sug- gests, that 'the only argument for freedom is the non-rational conservative one'? If so, God help me. I admire, perhaps inordinately, most of Mr Shendy's heroes- though I think he might with profit re-examine Mill (all of him, early and late) and the odious Bentham (especially Bentham's proposals for a panoptikon, which resembles nothing so closely as Auschwitz). Are these thinkers wholly on his side—dare I say our side?
Mr Shendy lists Burke. Churchill and myself as 'all the conservatives seem to have.' Never so flattered in my life. I must yet suggest that Mr Shendy has painted the situation at once darker and less dark than it really is. He forgets Dizzy, among countless others, and cites three people of whom none could at all times of their lives be called conservatives—not with a big 'c' anyway.
For Mr Wood's kind words and correction I am truly grateful.
Colin Welch 432 Upper Richmond Road, London SWI5
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