Liberal policies
From John W. Pardoe, MP
Sir; If Patrick Cosgrave had seriously wanted to know what Liberal policies are and had wished to write about them in an intelligent way he would doubtless have written a different article from that which graced your pages last week. As it was he told us more about the level of his own political thinking (which is not very high) than he did about the policies of the Liberal Party.
Mr Cosgrave assured us that he had looked at "every important policy document currently available." As chairman of the committee responsible for that policy I know how daunting such a task can be! If 1 was asked to choose, however, I do not think I would regard the only two documents he bothered to comment on as being the most important policy statements the Liberal Party has ever published! Mr Cosgrave admits that he received from party headquarters, in answer to his request, "a substantial wad of material." Yet he selected for comment a 4-page leaflet summarising the results of a survey of the opinions of
Liberals on population, and an article in the Liberal News of March 4, 1970, on Education. Could Mr Cosgrave not have found anything else to get his teeth into? I do assure him there is plenty of ridicule in the pamphlets and publications of all political parties. Let Mr Cosgrave try a brief walk round the bookshop at Conservative Central Office. He will find a positive library of idiocies there.
Perhaps however the best place to look for the policies of a party which is actually governing the country is in its election manifesto. The Conservative Manifesto is after all only three
years old — not much younger than the article from Liberal News which Mr Cosgrave made so much of. Mr Cosgrave would do well to take another look at A Better Tomorrow.
He might even write a funny very satirical article about it. What for instance would he make of this: " We utterly reject the philosophy of compulsory wage control ... Labour's compulsory wage control was a failure and we will not repeat it. . . . We reject the detailed intervention of Socialism which usurps the functions of management and seeks to dictate prices and earnings in industry." Or what would Mr Cosgrave's mirthful pen make of this little lot: " What ideal (Labour's) is it that makes it impossible for so many young couples to afford a home of their own .. . and brings about the biggest drop in house-building in a quarter of a century. . . . We will re verse the decline in building, make home ownership easier again... . It is scandalous that this year, as last year, fewer houses will be completed than in 1964 when Labour took over."
Oh yes, Mr Cosgrave, there is plenty of good material for your ha-ha talents in the Conservative Manifesto.
One doesn't even have to be witty to make fun of it. That should suit Mr Cosgrave very nicely! Or could it be that Mr Cosgrave does not find these selections from the home policy sec tions of the Conservative Manifesto
very funny? Is there perhaps too familiar a ring about them? For was
not Mr Cosgrave a member of the Conservative Party's Research Department from 1969 until 1971? And was not Mr Cosgrave responsible for Home Policy matters in that Department?
John W. Pardo'
House of Commons, London SW1
Previous page
