Bush league conservatism
From Roger Kuin Sir: For some time now, my favourite weekly has been falling into the trap of defining 'conservative' as the American 'Bush league' Republicans define it. American 'conservatives' are, as every European knows, Liberals in the 19th-century sense of the word: they stand for free markets, no taxes, little gov ernment, making the world safe for a highearnings profile, and the devil take the hindmost, especially those pesky poor who are little better than idle shirkers and malingerers.
Admittedly, Margaret Thatcher and her cohorts tried to put this over on the British, but as Blair fiascos (see the railways) have shown, the only ones convinced have been the liberals who call themselves New Labour'. Meanwhile, civility is dying, Britain is rich and brash and violent, public services are withering on the vine, and nostalgic references to Hogarth prints will not make this state of affairs acceptable.
Your paper's defence of the worst and most disgraceful government in American history (of which even many Republicans are ashamed) would make Conservatives like Disraeli, Lord Salisbury. Churchill and Macmillan turn in their graves. If The Spectator turns itself into an organ for American neocon attitudes, you will (I sincerely hope) lose a lot of readers who remember what true Conservative values stand for: an ordered society, the integration of the past with the present, and the responsibility of the fortunate for the less so.
Roger Kuin
Montreal, Canada
Previous page
