Conservative policies
Sir: If the Tory Party is to have any long-term future in this country, as an influential political force, it is surely only through a return to the kinds of policies advocated by Messrs Ridley and Vander Elst in their recent contributions to your magazine. Both represent the ideological Tory point of view, and for a party to last it must have a firm foundation, it must base itself on some fundamental ideals, and it is this which the party has recently so signally failed to do. There is, in fact (it may surprise some) a very strong ideological case for true capitalism and the Tories should be putting it, instead of presenting themselves to the public as a party almost devoid of intelligent ideas, which is the situation at present.
In the place of all the interventionist nonsense being preached by Heath and Co, from which real solutions to our present problems and ideas for the future are conspicuous by their absence, there should be some sound, coherent' policy of the kind advocated only four years ago, but which was then so ridiculously jettisoned in office. The last Government's display of political gymnastics may have been remarkable through its great virtuosity, but it was thoroughly despised by the public. Such action might just have been pardonable had the new policies been, if not better, at least as good they weren't. The majority of Conservatives, indeed much of the country as a whole, would, I think, welcome a return to the sound Selsdon ideas.
It is a paradoxical truth, that only by looking to its past can the Conservative Party hope to make progress in the future.
A. D. G. Sells 28 St Mary's Avenue, Northwood, Middlesex
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