Letters | 6 June 2009

Racism isn’t right

Sir: Reference is made in the headlines of Fraser Nelson’s article on the BNP (‘The rise of British racism may be horribly close’, 30 May) to ‘far Right politicians’. Surely Mr Nelson does not imagine that there is anything right-wing about the BNP? As its 2005 general election manifesto shows, it is a hard-left Old Labour-style party which supports nationalisation and trade union power, and opposes free trade. And surely he cannot think of racism as right-wing. As with nationalism, racism’s greatest supporters — Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin — were hard leftists, as is Mugabe today. And Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers party.

I cannot believe that The Spectator has bought into the Guardianista/BBC line that anything nasty, corrupt or vicious has to be labelled ‘right-wing’.

Tebbit
House of Lords, London SW1



Give us a brake

Sir: Unpalatable as it may seem, Moritz Frost (Letters, 30 May) must at least share the blame for the accident he caused when he made an emergency stop because a dog ran out in front of him and a ‘speeding cyclist who was “tailgating” me’ crashed into him and was thrown over his car. If he knew there was a speeding cyclist tailgating him, he was no longer driving with consideration for the road conditions around him.

Mr Frost should have slowed down and moved over to let the cyclist pass, stopping if necessary. It does not really matter that the cyclist may have been in the wrong — Mr Frost should have taken appropriate steps for his own safety and that of others. Perhaps he should reflect on how he would have felt if the cyclist had died, but he had saved the ‘dear Welsh terrier’.

Michael D. Varcoe-Cocks
London W6

 

Ukip falsehoods

Sir: As an admirer of — and subscriber to — The Spectator (albeit I am member of the Parliamentary Labour Party) I am dismayed that you should have printed an article based on such blatant falsehoods as that by Stuart Wheeler (‘Why I’m voting Ukip’, 23 May).