The Conservative predicament
Sir: With one or two possible exceptions I think that your correspondents have failed to hit the nail succinctly on the head. Surely the most interesting fact about the Conservative Party is that it is peculiarly difficult to see how it can plan to get back into office — it can, like the proverbial gambler, only hope against hope. In this it is facing the predicament of the Labour Party after 1959 when many thought that given a rising standard of living Conservative Government would prove to be permanent. Since then, however, the Conservative Party has lost three of the last four elections: what has happened? The most significant factor 'is that the Conservatives have ceased to be the party of good management. Their recent periods of office have , been associated with monumental balance of payments deficits, and bad housing records. Both in 1963-4 and 1973-4 the burden of taxation had been too slight to sustain the public expenditures of those years without inflation. Both in the early 'sixties and 'seventies, there was industrial disharmony as the result of government meddling in' the pay structures of employees.
But what makes the future all the more galling for the Conservative Party is that the weapons of the Opposition years 1964-70 have since been surrendered — then the Conservative Party could argue against socialism with the effective rhetoric of economic liberalism. Now such a curse, given the incipient collaboration of 1972-4, remains no longer open. Britain would appear to have as "bankrupt" an Op position as a Government. Roger Karn 22 Portugal Street, Cambridge
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