Sir: Thank God there is some hope for the Conservative
party yet (Another voice, 12 September). It should be obvious to anyone but the most blinkered Euronutter that Tony Blair and New Labour will never lose an election over the single currency. New Labour has become the pragmatic party, ruthlessly efficient at winning elections, whereas the Conservatives are now destruc- tively ideological with Lord Tebbit as the new Tony Benn. Matthew Parris is correct. The action of William Hague in calling a snap ballot on the euro is all about the con- tinuing internecine battle within the Tory party and will not have the slightest effect on the voters at large.
There is only one way the Conservatives can win another election and that is by bringing back those voters who defected in May 1997. OK, so those whom Mr Parris describes as 'the swivel-eyed tendency' have probably returned to the fold, apart from those who have joined the mad Yorkshire- man. However, there is not a cat in hell's chance that those of us who are Old Tory and are presently comfortable with New Labour and the Lib Dems will return to the Conservative party currently on offer. If you do not believe me, just look at the polls over the past 18 months: the Tories have not made a move other than downwards.
The parallel with Labour under Michael Foot is all too painfully apposite. You can either have two parties with wide-ranging appeal, both vying for power, or you can have one party with general appeal and one narrowly focused rump of ideologues per- petually in the wilderness. Anderson or Par- ris: take your choice, but remember Bruce Anderson's prediction at the last election. Peter Ellis
9 Walton Street, Oxford
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