Unheroic Owen
Sir: Charles Moore is mistaken if he thinks that Dr David Owen would ever be accept- able to the grass-roots of the Tory Party (Politics, 13 April). As in the old quip, he has sat on the fence so long that the iron
has entered his soul. Consider Dr Owen's forked tongue in the following cases. He called for rates of VAT to be extended but carefully refrained from suggesting on what goods and services the load should fall for fear of alienating specific groups. He sternly demanded at the height of the coal strike that there should be 'no fudging' but at the end demanded 'compassion'. In health affairs he called loudly and often for the prescription of generic as against branded goods, but when the Tories put this in train, thereby incurring flak from some doctors, patients and drug com- panies, he uttered not a word of support. It seems that heroism is not the good Doc- tor's strong suit.
Audrey Parry
71 Berrylands, Surbiton, Surrey
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