19 JANUARY 2008, Page 22

Sir: Denis MacShane’s insightful revelations of British Conservatives and Russian

diplomats cosying up to each other in the Council of Europe stirred nostalgic memories of over half a century ago.

At a Labour party parliamentary dinner for visiting Soviet leaders, Khrushchev and Bulganin in the 1950s, the future foreign minister George Brown wound up Mr K to such a degree that the Communist boss fumed he found it easier to talk with British Conservatives than with Labour leaders. The following day he added for good measure that if the Labour party was the face of British socialism, he’d prefer to be a Tory. The faces and ideologies may change, but it seems that Russo–Conservative affections die hard — albeit nourished by mutual agendas.

Maurice Jones

Rossendale Valley, Lancashire