Sir, Captain P. R. D. Kimm’s strictures on new Labour (letter, February 10) show him to be looking back at a golden age that never was.
He complains of “the steady erosion of the power of Parliament”. In the 1950s, in two normal-length parliamentary sessions there was not a single division in which any Conservative voted against the government whip. Such conformity would be inconceivable today in either party.
Spin, for Captain Kimm, seems to have originated with Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell. Whatever the sins of these gentlemen, do they match the way in which the media were manipulated by the Prime Minister and his aides in the run-up to the Second World War? This process was the more insidious in that it rested on informal and personal contacts and on the voluntary self-emasculation of newspaper owners and editors.
Captain Kimm contrasts the cynicism generated by spin with a time when “the word of an Englishman” was honoured worldwide. I wonder how many people across the world believed the assurance of the Government in 1956 when it claimed that it had intervened in the Suez crisis to stop a war.
When a government actively connives in an attack on one nation by another and then says it must intervene with force to separate the combatants, it has plumbed a depth of deceit which new Labour, however hard it may try, cannot begin to emulate.
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Yours faithfully,
HUGH BERRINGTON,
(Emeritus Professor of Politics),
Townhead Cottage,
Askham, Penrith, Cumbria CA10 2PG.
February 14.
From Mr J. R. Havers-Strong
Sir, Matthew Parris (Comment, February 12) delivered a masterly dissertation on the current state of British politics. We have reached the position of having an “elective dictatorship”, not only because of the massive Labour majority but also because of the Tory party’s inability to find, and declaim with passion and conviction, effective Tory policies.
For years we have had to put up with shallow, media-driven, shifting ideas, moved as much as anything by instant response to the latest fad.
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I yearn for someone who holds in contempt the spin and self-seeking outlook of the present governing party, who will hold dear the House of Commons and be seen there frequently, who believes in Cabinet government and not in the presidency, in all but name, of the prime minister, and who will not pander to the cameras.
Let him or her be statesmanlike, avoid pandering to the rule of the media soundbite and lead the country in a wise and sober manner, while maintaining those of our traditional institutions that function well instead of discarding them on a whim.
Let us have a government that considers all shades of opinion within its policy remit.
Yours faithfully,
J. R. HAVERS-STRONG,
Engracio, 11420 Belpech, France.
February 12.
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From Mr C. Mark Dixon
Sir, It would be interesting to know how much it cost the taxpayers in helicopter fuel and running costs for Tony Blair to deliver Labour’s six pledges (report and leading article, 12 February) of nonsense.
Is this how our leaders encourage us to conserve energy to meet Kyoto Protocol commitments?
Yours faithfully,
C. MARK DIXON,
Boutells Farm, Henny Road,
Lamarsh, nr Bures, Suffolk CO8 5EX.
February 12.
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From Mrs Barb Garner
Sir, Tony Blair may want to kiss and make up (report, February 14), but I vote we divorce him.
Yours faithfully,
BARB GARNER,
18 Downsview Road,
Golden Cross, East Sussex BN27 3RU.
barbgarner@onetel.com
February 15.