LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
From: Paul Williams, Gavin Maxwell, T. M. Higham, Enid Lakeman, Alastair Buchan, John Burley, Michael Selzer, 1. A. Girvan, John Brunner, S. Abdul, Sir Stephen King-Hall.
The Monday Club SIR,—What is it in the current mood of political commentators that makes them label anything that is not left-wing as 'reactionary' or fascist-inspired? Is it, as Mr. Anthony Lejeune wrote recently, that anything which offends Socialists must be deemed to be evil? Such arrogance would be amusing if it were not so dangerous.
However, I write this letter more as a seeker after truth. What was it that made Mr. Alan Watkins imply in his 'Political Commentary' (November 26) that the Monday Club public meeting at the Caxton Hall was like a Nuremberg rally? And why was it necessary to be so personally offensive about Dr. Wyndham Davies, MP, and Mr. Julian Amery, MP? As one of the 'old lags' referred to in the article, I would be interested in any evidence of a 'Nuremberg' attitude in the Monday Club, whose membership includes an increasing number of re- spected Conservative MPs. If Mr. Watkins has any such evidence I would like to hear it, either pri- vately or publicly, as our executive committee would certainly act on it.
PAUL WILLIAMS
Chairman, The Monday Club 6 Elm Park Road, London, SW3 [Alan Watkins writes: 'I find it strange that Mr. Williams should want evidence for my comparison of the Monday Club meeting to a Nuremberg rally. After all, he has supplied the evidence himself in a letter (also signed by Mr. Biggs-Davison and Mr. Wall) published in last Saturday's Daily Tele- graph. In this letter, Mr. Williams and his colleagues dissociate the Monday Club from the audience's call for three cheers for Mr. Smith. The letter also makes clear that the Monday Club is against UDI, whereas the audience was for it. What the letter is not so clear about is why the platform caved in when the audience refused to countenance any sanc- tions whatever.
It is legitimate enough for Mr. Williams to dis- own his supporters in the Daily Telegraph: but he cannot very well sing a different tune in the correspondence columns of the Spectator. 'As for Mr. Amery, I honestly thought I was being polite to him.'—Editor, Spectator.]
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