Conservative policies
Sir: I would like to come to the defence of Mr Keith Raffan. There were several points in his recent article that I didn't agree with — he is. I think, mistaken about the Industrial Relations Act, a statutory prices and incomes policy, and 'the threat to stop Social Security Benefits to the wives and children of strikers.' However, I would defend Mr Raffan's tone; if Conservatism is to survive, it must be seen to be humane and, as Mr Raffan urges, care about 'those in real and desperate need'. Too many Tories have abandoned Disraeli's concern with 'the condition of the people,' regarding free enterprise and social responsibility as being somehow incompatible; one detects a worrying echo of Barry Goldwater's 'pseudoconservatism' (to use Richard Hopstadler's term) when one listens to some of the Selsdon park apologists of the less sophisticated kind. It is perhaps a little naughty of Mr Raffan to attack Selsdon Man, that lame duck who has surely gone to the wall, and I think he may have overlooked the basic truths of the Selsdon Park economic policy.
As for PEST, I am a little depressed by the superficial nature of some of its publications (excepting two splendid pamphlets, one by David Knox MP about economic growth and another by the Cambridge PEST Study Group about aid to the Third World) and wish it would implement its good intentions more than it does. As a sixth-former, I am deeply impressed by Mr Raffan's idealism, an idealism too often lacking in Tory politicians who succeed in driving many young people away from ,hat genuine Conservative allegiance frequently inspired by the late lain Macleod. I myself decided to join PEST, although aware of its limitations, as a result of reading a letter from Mr Raffan in the New Statesman; in which he condemned the army coup in Chile: to the best of my knowledge, he is about the only Conservative politician to have done so. As for Mr Heath, it is high time Tories stopped waiting for a Messiah (whose name, one suspects, is Godot) and get on with preparing to win the next General Election. Anyway, Mr Heath, despite being denounced ex cathedra by various. self-appointed pontiffs of the Right, has proved himself a strong leader.
S. J. Lawson 146 Queen's Drive, Bedford
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