Whips and waiters
Sir: Mr Bruce Anderson asserts (Politics, 6 January) that Mr William Cash is 'a world- class bore'. I have known Mr Cash for sev- eral years and I have always found him to be very interesting with an especially wide knowledge of history.
I have known Mr Anderson for about 15 years and in all that time I have never heard him talk about anything except the nuts and bolts of internal Tory Party poli- tics — especially the work of the Whips. Some might consider this monomania to be boring (I do not ).
As a matter of fact, Mr Anderson and I have often been guests together at the homes of Mr David Hart in Suffolk and Scotland. It would not be possible for a gen- tleman to absorb so much of another gentle- man's hospitality if he thought his host was `widely distrusted'. So we may assume that Mr Anderson does not 'distrust' Mr Hart, nor, to my personal knowledge, does at least one former prime minister, one foreign sec- retary and at least several other members of the British Cabinet as well as a number of high-ranking British officers, not to mention American officials or ex-officials, including myself.
Perhaps Mr Anderson could tell us some- time who, if anyone, 'distrusts' his old friend?
Some mutual friends have noted a Vicar of Bray quality in Mr Anderson (see Alan Clark's Diaries). His fascination with the Tory Whips (the 'mess', etc.) brings to mind Mr Jack Ruby of Dallas who was never hap- pier than when he was allowed to fetch drinks for Texas cops. Mr Prescott in his youth was a waiter (a heterosexual one according to Mr Anderson). The difference between the two gentlemen in my opinion is that Bruce would like to be a waiter in the Whips' office.
Robert Schuettinger 11 Holywell Street,
Oxford
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