Selecting our masters
Sir: I do not think Mr Quintin Hogg is right (Letters, 14 February) when he calls Auberon Waugh's knowledge of politics ridiculous. I know a lot about politics and Mr Waugh's articles are always interesting because they are not ridiculous. Often they are true and amus- ing—a condition which probably only Mr Hogg could find ridiculous.
Accurate and rightly unamusing was Auberon Waugh (14•February) on how some Tory candidates get selected for prospective misemploymew at Westminster gas works. As a former Tory afgent (flay certified) I witnessed enough selections to be sure that they were the same up and down the country and that dissimilar ones vvere not many enough to re- store confidence in the eventual quality of Tory representation in the Commons. After each event I used to have to drive home carefully so that I should keep my licence cleaner than my thoughts. (And passing through Kidder- minster on my way to Bewdley, where 1 lived, I*u.sed 'to 'concentrate' on Stanley so as not to think of Gerald.) Selection committees seemed to be Mainly comprised of common people with vulgar ideas of a man's worth and ability as a possible Con- servative Member of Parliament. Of people on whom Burke and Disraeli and Baldwin and Powell and even Mr Hogg himself are wasted. (How on earth did they get 'selected'?) I pro- pose the adoption of Mr Waugh's report and would urge him to be even more 'ridiculous.'
Thomas W. Gadd Cio 119 Hazelwood Lane, Palmers Green, London N13
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