Tones and the Market
From Mrs Tessa Collins
Sir: Like Mrs Carthew I too am saddened and enraged by certain of the Tory Party and their hypocrisy over great Britain's membership of the EEC — a membership which I hope will be temporary.
The cynicism with which some Conservative MPs treated the electorate in this issue must surely be without parallel in our parliamentary history. There were those who lulled the doubts of their constituents in the election of 1970 by inferring that membership of the EEC was not an issue at that particular election. There were those who implied when questioned on the subject that they could not envisage terms for which they could vote. (Surely the Rippon terms could not have fulfilled anyone's criterion.) Then of course there were those pathetic beings who, having made a stand for their principles, allowed themselves to be 'whipped' into submission at the behest of their dictatorial leader. Can such a party headed by such a leader have been surprised that numerous of its former supporters reacted with equal cynicism and said: "It is not fit that you sit here any longer?"
It may well be true that "a week is a long time in politics," but it is also true that the perpetrators of acts of betrayal are remembered long; after all the memory of one such is still fresh after two thousand years. Let us hope therefore that those MPs within the Tory party who feel that the nation should disentangle itself from the EEC while there is still time have the courage on this occasion to tell the people the truth and to put country before party.
Tessa Collins 15 Milford Road, Newcastle-underLyme, Staffordshire
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