POLITICS
In which Mr Major's real reason for visiting Israel is explained. (It's got something to do with money)
BORIS JOHNSON
No one reporting Mr Major's recent trip to Israel seemed to have any idea what the point of it was. There didn't appear to be a political story, even though the entire Westminster Lobby had been invited, and platitudinous interviews with Prime Minis- ter Rabin were laid on. Doubtless much good work was done by the 32 British busi- nessmen who went with him in the plane, building up links with the Palestinian statelet. But it is not too cynical, I am told, to believe the Prime Minister was playing a little bit of ethnic politics.
The Major escutcheon has been stained ever since he went, unnecessarily, as a guest of the PLO to the West Bank in March- April 1982, (a stone narrowly missed his head). It would be misleading to say that the Jewish community is consequently anti- Major. It is just that Mrs Thatcher was magnificent and convincing in her sympa- thy for Israel in a way that Major has never been. Carol Thatcher went to a kibbutz. Not so young James Major. One might add Major's support for David Mellor, the friend of Mona Bauwens who saw fit to tick off an Israeli soldier doing his duty in Gaza.
Since the last election, though, Major has worked hard to atone for his errors, and to build up form as a Zionist. He has turned up to four important communal functions, including a speech to the Joint Israel Appeal in November last year. The Jerusalem Post last week contained an arti- cle by Robert Rhodes James, the former Tory MP and prominent Tory Friend of Israel, announcing that Major was one of the great gentile Zionists in the tradition of Victor Cazalet. The campaign has culmi- nated in the Israel trip, featuring the widely publicised and much applauded decision to kick the Arabist junior foreign office minis- ter, Douglas Hogg, off the plane.
Now, if one were to take a cynical view of this trip, one might partly attribute its pur- pose to Tory anxiety about holding North London seats. Like the middle classes everywhere, the Jewish community is not happy with the Tories. Trouble is expected in Finchley, Lady Thatcher's old seat, where Hartley Booth, he of the nubile ex- researcher, holds on with a majority of only 6,000. And while we are in this cynical vein, we cannot avoid the possibility that the trip was, also, part of the Tory party's increas- ingly desperate struggle to persuade tradi- tional supporters, not least Jewish business- men, to continue with their donations.
One of the many statistics which congeals the marrow at Tory Central Office is that Tony Blair has added 80,000 members to the Labour Party since he became leader last summer. Labour already has a war- chest of £5 million, and this is expected to top nine million by the next election. At Tory Central Office, by contrast, Mr Jere- my Hanley has announced that 40 jobs will have to go. The party is £16.5 million in the red. This is the moment inthe electoral cycle when funds should be starting to come and they are not.
Lord Hambro, the party treasurer, has returned empty-handed from a mission to touch the capitalist cowards of Hong Kong, who are furious at Chris Patten's attempts to promote democracy. Barings RIP used to contribute about £70,000. The party also owes about £600,000 to what was Saatchi and Saatchi. Even Mr Graham Kirkham, the Yorkshire tycoon who lent £4 million, is expecting it back at the end of the month, all the more eagerly, perhaps, since he is accused of avoiding tax by paying himself in art and antiques. The worst of it is that the big donors like United Biscuits and Allied Domecq have simply stopped. They say it would be 'inap- propriate' to give money to the Tory party because they are now 'international' com- panies. That is, of course, flannel. It might be that the the drinks industry is irritated with the Government's performance over excise duties. Or perhaps, as one Tory fund-raiser says, businessmen are generally appalled by the disunity of the party, over Europe and everything else. The blindingly obvious reason for the stopped cheques, surely, is that these com- panies are fairweather friends who feel that `Ho w shocking! I had no idea he was a politician.' the Tories are unlikely to win. Their defec- tions now, while the Tories are 40 points behind, make clear the spirit in which the original donations were made. They were thought of as investment, or a bribe; and there's no point in wasting cash on people who aren't going to be in a position to help you.
Not all Britain's great companies are headed by such ingrates and chickens. `Remember what happened to inflation and to your income — the pound in your pocket — the last time we had a Labour Government? Think about it. The way for- ward is by continuing to encourage the party that truly believes in the creation of national wealth, not spending it.' Thus Lord Hanson on 1 February, to the over- whelming applause of his shareholders. All right, he says, let us assume defeat is inevitable. 'It would still be right to back the style of life in which we believe.'
The same plucky spirit is shown by some smaller companies. 'It's just something we do,' says a chap at a merchant bank, which shall remain nameless, and which regularly sends a cheque for £1,000, and has done ever since anyone can remember. Seabrook potato crisps continues its cheque for £1000. Walkers shortbread lashes out with its ritual £1,500. Even poor John D. Wood, the estate agents, is giving £100, a poignant gesture presumably designed to point up loyalty in the face of what the Tories have done to the housing market.
These widow's mites, alas, will not be enough. The big companies will have to return to the fold. Somehow Mr Hanley will have to make them fear a Labour victo- ry enough to fund a final orgy of Tory pro- paganda. I quoted Lord Hanson's stirring words about the Labour menace to the man from Allied Domecq. I laid it on thick about how Mr Blair was against wealth cre- ation. At length, grumpily, he said his com- pany's desertion was not necessarily irrevo- cable. 'We could possibly do it again,' he said, though he sounded half-hearted. These companies need to be shown an example. If John D. Wood can get away with £100, the time has come for all good men to come to the aid of the party. Let me start the ball rolling with a tenner. No, make that a fiver.
Boris Johnson is assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph.
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