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Letters to the Editor

Wednesday, 26th September 2007

Thank you for Peter Oborne’s ruthlessly accurate exposé of the Political Class (‘The Establishment is dead’, 15 September).

Sir: Thank you for Peter Oborne’s ruthlessly accurate exposé of the Political Class (‘The Establishment is dead’, 15 September). The collateral damage caused by the killing of the Establishment can be distilled into just five words: the death of independent thought. This seems to apply to the populace as a whole as much as to politicians of all parties.
Ten short years ago Frank Field, an intelligent and thoughtful man, was appointed minister of welfare reform in the Department of Social Security with a mandate from Tony Blair to ‘think the unthinkable’. In doing so, he clashed with Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. His reward, less than a year later, was to be offered a sideways transfer whereupon he resigned, his integrity intact. He has not held a ministerial post since. Meanwhile, the very capable Kate Hoey was removed from her post as minister of sport for consistently voting with her conscience, most notably in the case of the iniquitous Hunting Bill.
In 1997, the Establishment might have been very sick, but it wasn’t quite dead. New Labour switched off the life-support machine. Today people who can, or dare, to think for themselves seem to be rarer than hens’ teeth. Our only hope is that they are still out there, quiet for the moment, but ready to make themselves heard if needs be.

Peta Seel
Nassiet, France

A cold climate

Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 22 September) works himself into a lather over the Mitford sisters, reeling in admiration at their ‘unique, fearless way of looking at things’ despite their lack of any formal education. Had they attended school and university, they might have met ordinary people and turned out less self-delusional and snobbish. Mr Moore even appears to admire the ghastly pro-Nazi Diana. Once, after I had interviewed her husband, the Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, she wrote to a friend:
‘The Evening Standard sent this polite young man to interview Tom [as Mosley was known]. But it was only later that I discovered he was Jewish. They are a very clever people and come in all shapes and sizes.’

Paul Callan
London SW10

Sir: Oh, come off it, Mr Moore. Unity Mitford ‘this innocent, deluded young girl’ indeed. May I remind you that well before September 1939 there were many young women — the Wrens, Waaf and Fany — who were fully conscious of what Hitler was, although of course very few of them, if any, had the advantage of knowing such an extraordinary range of people.

Peggy W. Adams
Sporle, Norfolk

Sister act

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A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

Diary

Anne Robinson

The daughter and I spent the last few days before the American election in Arizona.

Politics

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.