An end to punditry
Sir: Immediately after the 1970 general election the Times published the following comment from me: "The brain-washers and opinionmakers have been rejected, discredited and humiliated. Now, perhaps, the journalistic soothsayers will discard their broken wands, the pollsters will throw away their erratic thermometers and all go back to doing what they did before public necromancy became the vogue."
Well, history having repeated itself in the recent non-election, is it now too much to hope that we have at last seen the ignominious end of pollsters, the pundits, the press sorcerers and their TV apprentices?
And, incidentally, would it not be equally beneficent if in the catharsis of the political upheaval we may have purged ourselves of the 'knockers' who seem to lose no opportunity to denigrate our beloved country?
Surely we have heard more than enough about our being "on our knees," "relegated to the third league of world powers," "facing economic bankruptcy," being "Europe's Sick Man," or being "dead broke" (as one American reporter so elegantly put it)? I would endorse Mr Alf Garnett's predictable comment on this — "a load of bloody rubbish." It's a minor miracle that we haven't got an irreversible inferiority complex. Thank God, the heart, guts and nerves of this nation are as steady and sturdy as ever they were.
Certainly we have serious fiscal problems, but when a great and glorious nation (or a fine and reputable business) faces a temporary liquidity crisis there is no difficulty in getting ample financial help. For 'good risks' (either in countries or commerce) massive assistance and generous accommodation are always readily available. And who dares say that we are not a 'good risk' when the order books of our great producing companies are full; our civil engineers are erecting structures all over the world worth hundreds of millions; and when we have an asset in the North Sea that alone will guarantee our future prosperity? Above all the skill of our workers is still unmatched: we have the best and bravest miners in the world.
Who then will speak for Britain? I, for one, will! By any standard we are the most civilised, uncorrupt, literate, well-mannered, law-abiding, basically sensible, fair-minded, innovative and technologically advanced people on the face of the earth. We have got more to be proud of than any other nation of comparable size. We have
contributed more to the betterment of mankind — all the way from insulin and radar to the jet and television — than any other community in the world. Let us dwell on these things when our competitors choose to decry us and us ndwohffen the envious prepare to write Through the ineptitude of politicians and the bickerings of the trades unions we could be in danger of losing our self-esteem and confidence. Therefore a pre-requisite to the solution of most of our domestic and international problems must be the re-establishment of faith in ourselves, pride in our heritage and belief in our genius for survival. Let is lift up our hearts and our heads and walk ten feet tall. We are a wonderful people. And since we have no Churchill to restore our morale. perhaps we might find inspiration in the words of Swinburne:
"All our past acclaims our future: come the world against her, England shall stand."
Mark Goulden Chairman, W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd., 44 Hill Street, London WI.
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