LETTERS Proud to be Little
From Mr Michael Wadman Sir: If one is going to use a book review as a vehicle to peddle one's extremist political views, one must expect to be shot down. So, for the benefit of Ian Gilmour (Books, 13 May): This government may claim to be Thatcherite, but Mrs Thatcher would not have imposed on us the working time direc- tive, the minimum wage, or IR35. The pound is not high. It remains as low as ever against the dollar, the yen, and every other major currency. It is high only against the euro and that is because the euro is in a ter- minal nosedive. This is not the responsibili- ty of Her Majesty's Government or the Bank of England, but of Lord Gilmour's friends in Brussels. I suggest he reads Christopher Fildes's excellent column in the same issue.
Mrs Thatcher's Pauline conversion when she realised that the EC was a threat both to Britain's prosperity and to its very exis- tence is something for which we should all be grateful. There is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth. . . .
The Little Englanders were people who, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thought that possession of an overseas empire was a bad thing for Britain. Since this view is widely held by his left-wing friends, it is strange that Lord Gilmour should use the term as an insult. It is also inappropriate and inaccurate to apply it to people who think it a bad thing that Britain itself should be a part of someone else's empire.
Michael Wadman London SE25
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