• * SIR.—In your leading article last week you said
that the Tory Party must show itself more clearly in sympathy with something you call 'the new middle class.' Although this expression is frequently used in left-wing Tory circles, nobody seems to have any clear idea what sort of an animal is referred to, where it is to be found, or what its tastes are.
The Tories have been wooing it without success for the last thirteen years, and have succeeded only in alienating large groups of their erstwhile sup- porters in what may be called 'the old middle class'— small tenants exposed to Rachmanism by the repeal of the rent restriction legislation, and small shop- keepers infuriated by the repeal of resale price maintenance.
There can be little doubt that it was the lack of these votes-which caused the defeat of the party. which has fallen between two stools. Whatever the 'new middle class' consists of, it contains no Tory voters, actual or potential.
R. L. TRAVERS
Army and Navy Club. Pall Ma!!, SW!
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