Letters in the Press
There were four letters that court my eye this morning two in the Times and two more in the Telegraph
The first I did not see the significance of at first, but is probably the most important, because it covers quite a bit of ground, and also either shows the Conservatives to be particularly gullible, particularly stupid or outright liars, I leave it to you to judge.
Support for Nato within Europe
From Professor Alan Lee Williams
Dr North at Eureferendum explains the significance of Professor Williams letter here
Lack of leadership in British politics
From Mr Tony Thorn
Sir, Has there ever been a more pathetic period in the history of British politics? The paucity of talent and integrity in any of the leading parties is depressing in the extreme.
On the one hand we have a right-wing government, masquerading under the name of Labour — led by a man whom I would not trust to tell me the right time of day. A man supported by a Chancellor who has plundered millions from pension funds (while preaching financial prudence), and has spent seven years introducing stealth taxes which have eaten into the meagre earnings of society’s poorly paid — Labour’s traditional supporters.
On the other hand we have the Conservative Opposition: the ragtag and bobtail remnants of a once proud party of government, led by their fourth leader in seven years. A party that has very little to commend it to the electorate, but has perfected the art of stabbing leaders in the back.
The day that those gutless political pygmies conspired to oust Margaret Thatcher from No 10 was the day the Tory party committed electoral suicide.
As a lifelong socialist I found little with which to agree with Mrs Thatcher, but she had more courage than today’s Conservative front bench.
Where are the Conservative Party’s bright young men, to provide a real challenge to new Labour’s political domination?
Exactly what we would all like to know Mr Thorn, our politics are a disgusting charade, as indicated if nothing else by the Labour party introducing ID cards and not being comprehensively opposed by a Tory party that is supposed to hold personal freedom above all in fact the only party to gain any kudos from this is the Libdems.
Sir - So the Conservative Party plans to reduce the number of politicians by making MPs’ constituencies larger (News, Dec 27). Can I suggest a simpler solution?
Remove from the House of Commons all the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs and turn the Commons into an English Parliament with the same powers as the Scottish Parliament. Remove all the members of the House of Lords and replace with a directly elected senate of, say, 160 members representing all parts of the UK and dealing with UK only matters (defence, foreign affairs etc).
This would achieve a drastic reduction in the number of politicians and also solve the perennial problem of how to reform the House of Lords. It would also end the present devolution injustice where England has been left as the only part of the UK that does not have a Parliament or a political party to speak for it.
Neil Addison, New Bailey Chambers, Liverpool
Of course it would also go a long way to achieve some form of break up of the UK for easer consumption by the ever present European Union.
How sweetly reasonable the Prime Minister appears this Christmas-tide.
Sir - How sweetly reasonable the Prime Minister appears this Christmas-tide.
By rightly keeping his Attorney General on a leash so that the Countryside Alliance may exhaust every legal avenue to stop the hunting ban before it is enforced, he is at least restoring the 18-month moratorium agreed by the Commons but turned down tactically by the Lords. He hopes to defuse the hunting issue as a threat to his third election victory and to ensure a peaceful reception for the Olympic Committee’s visit to London in the New Year.
We must not allow ourselves to be out-foxed like gullible rabbits by Tony Blair’s cunning. It is up to the courts to determine the legitimacy of the Parliament Act. The Countryside Alliance appears to have forced an important concession but we are not yet out of the woods and Mr Blair will continue to confuse the scent for all he’s worth.
John Gouriet, Bicknoller, Somerset
To me the House of Lords did have a good point, the last thing his Toniness would want is an uprising in the countryside just as he is about to ask us all to give him a further five years, to totally mess up the British Constitution. I did read that the leader of the Countryside Alliance was actually a Labour supporter, this could if true, explain why that organisation do not seem to be able to see further than their next hunt.
