Why we hate the Tory party
Sir: Auberon Waugh attacks the Conservative party (28 July) for failing to attract sufficient unsocialist intellectuals. Without the undoubted pleasure of knowing Mr Waugh, I would think that a measure of his article was written with tongue in cheek. But no matter, I feel that I want to reply.
The electoral effects of the party's alleged failures in this matter are very much open to question, but I am going to refrain from becoming involved in this. To say that the Conservative party any longer distrusts unsocialist intellectuals is not true. Cer- tainly, in the past the party has been labelled as anti-intellectual, but I should have thought that by now the strenuous efforts of successive leadership to kill this image would have convinced most people. I will not deny that the gentry of the shires may be suspicious of the Conservative intellectuals, but someone should tell Mr Waugh that these people do not run the party. In any event, is it not becoming increasingly obvious that the don of the Labour party is a stranger to the miners from Durham or the shipbuilder from Tyneside?
One can never hope to persuade the whole rank and file of a party that the intellectuals are useful to their cause. But what Mr Waugh appears to have missed is that since the early post-war days of R. A. Butler and particularly since Mr Heath took over, the leadership has personally backed a wide range of moves intended to pull unsocialist intellectuals into support and action for the party.
During this time the Bow Group, of which I am a member, was formed and it has since suc- ceeded in countering the influence of the Fabian Society. It is also having a growing impact on opinion and is continuing to attract some of the brightest young men of their generation as they come down from university. Apart from several other lively bodies that flourish as intellectual orkshops, the party itself, through the medium of pc. has never been more active in sponsoring moves to harness the minds of hundreds of people in the constituencies to the consideration and dis- cussion of new ideas. There is also a constant flow of brilliant papers on every conceivable subject. All this has meant that at every level of the Con- servative party there is now an intellectual approach to politics. Furthermore a smooth intercourse of ideas and opinion has been established with academics and their kin and many such people are holding important posts within the party.
I hope that all this serves to show that the party can provide a comfortable home for Conservative intellectuals. But while reading Mr Waugh's article I could not help thinking that maybe- the 'leftie' intellectual is more politically activist than his colleagues of the right, and makes more noise about it too. So to those who are still waiting on the sidelines I say this: if you believe enough in our cause, then join with us to fight for it. Our .ntellectuals should now show us what they are made of. and those who are not prepared to share :he fight for common ideals should stop bemoaning :he supposed deficiencies of the party.
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