A letter to the Sunday Telegraph, the first paragraph of which was published on 19th June 2005.

As yet another Scot declares himself a contender for the leadership of the Conservative Party, the prospect arises that the leasership of all three main parties could be Scottish.  Whatever the personal merits of the Scottish contenders, might it just not occur to them, in all humility, that you can have too much of a good thing, particularly as Scots voices are already vastly over-represented on the English airwaves.

This year England cast more votes for the Conservatives than for Labour and Liberals and accounts for all but 4 Conservative seats in parliament. Might it not serve the Conservative cause better if the Scots would-be leaders in Southern English Seats applied themselves directly to reviving their party’s fortunes north of the border, which 50 years ago sent a majority of Conservatives to Westminster, but where today the Conservatives trail fourth behind the other three main parties.

A letter to the Times which was published around 29th May 1987.

In his article “Folly of the compassion stakes” (May 26th) Michael Ignatieff suggests that the fact that a majority of the electorate apparently intend to vote for the parties (Labour and Alliance) which will put up taxes, contradicts Ralph Harris’s view that few people volunteer to pay higher taxes in order to get better services.  There is in fact no contradiction, since those voting Labour, in particular, will do so in the expectation that the better services they think they will get will be paid for by others, especially those voting Conservative.