LETTERS A Portillista replies
Sir: Your magazine is becoming so obsessed with Mr Michael Portillo that, as something of a Portillista myself, I am mild- ly encouraged.
The article by Mr Bruce Anderson (Poli- tics, 13 January) which bewailed the quality of Mr Portillo's friends was strikingly borne out a few pages later by the 'defence' of the Defence Secretary by Miss Wyatt (Further- more). This commenced with two slurs on Mr Portillo's savoir-faire; one of them is, by Miss Wyatt's own admission, likely to be an aberration on the part of her woolly-mind- ed mother, the other — that he planned a celebration at Alexandra Palace to mark his own anniversary as an MP — is a straight- forward fib.
I am able to prove it so. As a member of Southgate Conservative Association, I worked with the well-meaning souls who actually planned this event (as part of the normal fund-raising process of every Con- servative Association) and who went to great lengths to keep it from Mr Portillo's knowledge for as long as possible. This was because their intention was to give him what they thought would be — and might well have been, without the pompous censori- ousness of the press — a pleasant surprise.
I take it as a mark of Mr Portillo's quali- ties of leadership and loyalty that on this, as on other occasions, he has never sought to deflect opprobrium by indicating blame, fault, or error of judgment elsewhere. This by itself makes him stand out amongst modern politicians.
I note that Miss Wyatt credits herself with 'discovering' (sc. inventing) and publi- cising the Ally Pally canard about Mr Por- tillo, which seems to have entered his mythology. Perhaps now that she has an assurance that it is untrue, she will, as one who speaks up for Mr Portillo, apologise for her error.
David Conway
Russian Federation, UI. Komsomolskaya 6/3, Kaliningrad, Russia
Petronella Wyatt writes: I am afraid I find this hard to swallow.
Six months before the party, Mr Portillo's constituency chairman had been writing to business people to invite them to contribute financially to the event. Surely news of this would have reached Mr Portillo. Second, it would seem odd not to consult the Minister about the advisability of holding a celebra- tion on such a scale — particularly since there was to be a video of Mr Portillo's life and times. One wonders, incidentally, where the constituency would have acquired footage for this film, if not from Mr Portillo and his immediate family?
Previous page
