A letter to the Spectator Magazine which was published on 3rd December 2005.
Sheila Donaldson (Letters, 26th November) is dead right to characterise David Cameron’s leadership bid as back to the centrist cosy politics of past Tory grandees like his Oxford patrons Douglas Hurd and Chris Patten.
When finally pinned down by John Humphrys on the Today programme about what actual steps he would take to implement his agenda, the very first thing Cameron came out with was ‘increase the representation of women in Parliament’. That really is going to be a big help for our country, facing a huge gap between energy needs and affordable supplies, a massive and growing trade deficit, and a pensions crisis getting worse with each month of inaction. On none of these crucial survival issues did David Cameron have the slightest thing to say. How lightweight can you get?
A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 17th July 1999.
Chris Patten asserts that “every citizen has a primary loyalty to democratic government” (article, Sept. 15th).
But, if he deigned to ask them, he would find that most British citizens believe they have a primary loyalty to a country called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its symbols, the Crown and Union flag.
Mr Patten might also acknowledge that one main principle of democracy is that majorities prevail where there is disagreement with minorities.
The history of Northern Ireland in the past 30 years is that the view of the majority (those who want to uphold the state) has been consistently set aside by successive British governments in favour of the minority (those wanting to destroy it). Mr Patten’s report is no exception.
On Breakfast with Frost last weekend, Mr Patten said: “I don’t think anybody can really agree that a name or badge actually affects the quality of policing”.
If that is so, why will Mr Patten not accept, as a self-proclaimed democrat, that the will of the majority should prevail in these matters?
His report justifies its wish to remove United Kingdom symbols by reference to 40 per cent of the people of Northern Ireland who are Roman Catholic, and then refers to that part of the community “which does not acknowledge the legitimacy of the state” as if they were one and the same thing.
In fact, past evidence of polls is that a substantial proportion of Roman Catholics do support the British connection, though for obvious reasons they tend not to proclaim it.
Instead of carrying out the promised sham “consultations”, why not test the matter in a referendum of the Northern Ireland people and see how many people in a secret ballot support keeping Crown and Oath in their police force – in line with police forces in the rest of the United Kingdom?
A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 23rd September 1989.
Can anyone remember a more demeaning performance by a Minister of the Crown than that of Chris Patten’s pleading in Brussels with a foreign bureaucrat not to “prosecute” our country over infringement of a directive about our own water quality? Instead of giving the only manly reply – “Get lost” – Mr Patten’s undignified supplication received the entirely predictable response – a kick in the teeth. As vast chunks of British industry pass into foreign hands, a government which continually prides itself on “fighting for Britain” needs to take a good long look at itself.
A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 23rd September 1989.
Can anyone remember a more demeaning performance by a Minister of the Crown (report, Sept. 21st) than that of Mr Chris Patten’s pleading in Brussels with a foreign bureaucrat not to “prosecute” our country over infringement of a directive about our own water quality? Instead of giving the only manly reply – “Get lost”, Mr Patten’s undignified supplication received the entirely predictable response – a kick in the teeth. As vast chunks of British industry pass into foreign hands, a government which continually prides itself on “fighting for Britain” needs to take a good long look at itself.
