LETTER:One Nation: a true blue view

Sir: Lord Gilmour's comments to the New Statesman and Society ("Blair 'is best for One-Nation Tories' ", 11 May), are startlingly naive in denying that Mr Blair is anything other than the socialist he has always proudly proclaimed himself to be. None the less, they serve as a warning to those of us who still count ourselves "One Nation" Tories.

We have as urgent a responsibility as we ever did during the Eighties to reassert our values and reaffirm our heritage as the true Conservative one. Certainly we have all learnt the lessons of the Eighties, both strategic and political. We have only to look at Mr Blair's move to try and create a "New" Labour Party as proof of that. But it does not mean we are ready to pack our bags and travel to a socialist party, however "new" it may pretend to be.

The true Conservative Party still stands for the core values of economic strength and social responsibility. The Prime Minister often repeats this commitment.

Perhaps our problem is compounded by a minority of ego-tripping right- wing MPs who try to hold the Government to ransom with little or no sense of loyalty to our party. In so doing, they have allowed the Conservatives to be misinterpreted in the public mind, and given Labour the opportunity for deception that it could never have created on its own.

The Tory Reform Group and others must stand to the fore and reassert the true soul of the Tory Party, neither allowing New Labour to steal our values, nor the New Right to pervert them. The One Nation voice stays Tory.

Yours faithfully,

SUE WOODROOFE

Chairman

Tory Reform Group

Cambridge

11 May