Conservative dilemmas
Sir: As a life long but now very disillusioned Conservative, I am faced with an appalling dilemma as the next general election approaches.
Until Mr Heath decided to call a general election in February this year, I had not wavered in my basic political belief in the case for Conservatism so succinctly expressed by Lord Hailsham and seemingly not read by the majority of the leading members of the present Conservative party. Now as I review performance against what was promised in 1970 the balance sheet is not one to inspire or encourage me to re-invest my vote in Mr Heath or his defunct team.
In 1970 they promised to halt inflation; instead they added fuel to the contagion. They promised to reduce the dead weight of central government expenditure; they ended up by increasing the number of government "departments and the total of civil servants by at least 9,000 more than when they took office. They promised to help make British industry more efficient and competitive not least by stoppinL providing crutches for permanent-laMe ducks. They ended up by nationalising Rolls Royce. They promised us open government; instead they became progressively one Of the most uncommunicative and secretive administrations in this century. They promised to cure the poor industrial relations; they ended up by antagonising the whole trade union movement, giving in to the miners and finally being defeated by their intransigence. So far as my memory is accurate they kept only one promise; to take Britain into the European Economic Community And what a pyrrhic victory and promise that has turned out to be. Finally Mr Heath called a general election eighteen months before he needed to and thus put the Labour Party into office with all the chaos, uncertainty and the collapse and demoralisation of business confidence that has ensued. Not much of a record of promises broken and promises kept to be proud of is it?
How then shall I answer the Conservative canvassers when they come knocking at my door asking for support and my vote?
John Lidstone 34 Tavistock Road, Fleet, Hants,
Previous page
