20 MAY 2006, Page 24

Selwyn the scapegoat

From D.R. Thorpe

Sir: In his review of 1956: Power Defied by Peter Unwin (Books, 13 May) Douglas Hurd wrote that Selwyn Lloyd, the foreign secretary during the Suez Crisis, ‘owed us all his resignation’. In fact, Selwyn Lloyd tendered his resignation on 28 November 1956, telling the Cabinet, ‘I thought the best thing was to have a scapegoat and I was willing to resign.’ This resignation was refused.

D.R. Thorpe Banbury, Oxon