Letters: The Conservative Party has drifted far from its core values and beliefs

SIR – It is not that the Conservatives have lost their way (Letters, October 25); it is that they no longer espouse Conservative principles and values, either fiscally or culturally. 

There are too many in government and the parliamentary party whose beliefs are more Blairite Labour or Liberal Democrat than conservative. Their warnings that a vote for the Reform Party will let Labour win ignores the fact that there is little difference between Labour and the Conservatives, whereas Reform UK at least offers a Conservative perspective. 

The Prime Minister should not take hope from the low turnout at the recent by-elections, as there is nothing in his party and the Government’s current direction, views or beliefs that will provide any motivation to vote Conservative at the next election.

Phil Coutie
Exeter, Devon

SIR – My congratulations to Judith Daniels (Letters, October 25), who seems to have spotted some Right-of-centre policies that have been introduced by this Government. 

My eyesight must be failing because I haven’t.

Christopher Timbrell
Kington Langley, Wiltshire

SIR – Allowing gender ideology to capture government departments and public bodies, including the police and the NHS, should be reason enough for people to vote against the Conservatives at the next general election. But with all other major parties actively promoting that ideology, the Tories may be hoping that their quiet complacency in this area will be enough.

If Rishi Sunak wants to present himself as a change candidate, breaking with his predecessors would be the right thing to do, and also provide a point of difference between the Tories and others parties.

Tim Barnsley
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland

SIR – I disagree with Allison Pearson’s latest criticism of Rishi Sunak (Comment, October 25). 

So far, despite every attempt by the media and his own backbenchers to undermine him, Mr Sunak has managed to slow the rate of inflation, reduce the influx of illegal immigrants and maintain the economy, despite the failures of the Bank of England to act when it should have done. The potential for a new approach to combat the woes of the electorate and address the cost of living, reduce the rate of tax, reduce the state and change the NHS to an insurance-based health service could change the political landscape.

Give the poor chap a chance and wait for the new King’s Speech before making any more comments about replacing him. If the voters then choose the likes of Angela Rayner or Ed Davey they will have plenty of time to find out the effects of their decision.

RC Aldridge
Sherborne, Dorset

Restoring Clandon

SIR – Neil MacGregor may be a fine historian, and was an outstanding director of the British Museum, but he is misguided in his praise for the National Trust’s scheme for Clandon Park (Comment, October 25). It is true that the 2015 fire destroyed much of Clandon’s contents, but its significance was less about them and more about the quality of its interiors, above all the magnificent Marble Hall, which survives in its essentials. These were the justification for its original acquisition, and were fully recorded.

As it stands, the interior is a bleak, depressing shell, which is most unlikely to inspire future generations of visitors in the way Mr MacGregor claims. He draws comparisons with the reconstructed Neues Museum in Berlin, which deliberately retains the evidence of its wartime ravaging. However, the museum is a testament to the terrible tragedy of Berlin as a city in the 1940s, whereas Clandon in its present state is merely testament to the shocking but banal fact that it is the latest historic house to be burned out in National Trust ownership.

Members of the Trust who want to see these superb interiors restored to their former glory, and the opportunity taken to pass on the skills of our finest conservation practitioners to the next generation, have until November 3 to support the resolution tabled at the AGM.

Cornelia van der Poll
Chairman, Restore Trust
Morecambe, Lancashire

SIR – The preservation of Clandon Park as a ruin, according to Neil MacGregor, will enable us to “feel uniquely close” to the craftsmen who built the house. This will, however, be cold comfort to today’s craftsmen, who might have hoped to be invited to recreate the fine plasterwork and wood carvings. 

The National Trust would do better to emulate the authorities at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. Nothing brings you so close to the craftsmen as watching film of the carpenters using the original techniques to shape the new roof timbers.

David J Critchley
Winslow, Buckinghamshire 

Women’s rugby skills

SIR – Ben Griffin’s letter (October 23) on improving the game of rugby is an easy one to address: make the conversion to watching women’s rugby matches. 

With an emphasis on skilful, try-scoring rugby, it’s certainly an enjoyably different proposition to the risk-averse men’s game. I can vouch for the fact that he won’t miss the end-to-end kick tennis and time-consuming arm-wrestling, or “scrums” as they used to be known.

Tim Cozze-Young
Shrewsbury

Long-distance pause

SIR – I, too, have kept treasured handwritten letters from my daughters, sent from their British boarding school (Letters, October 25) when we were on overseas postings.

One of my all-time favourites read:

“Dear; Mummy;
Today; we; learnt; about; semi; colons;
Love; from; me.”

Lindsay Gaskell
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

SIR – When not long at primary school, my son Caspar announced proudly: “Look what I did at lunchtime today,” and showed me a piece of paper with a short sentence he had copied 10 times in beautiful handwriting. I asked what it said but he didn’t know. It read: “I must not fight other boys.”

Ursula Benjafield 
Althorne, Essex

UN secretary-general’s remarks are a disgrace

SIR – I would have expected more accurate comments from someone as senior as António Guterres, the UN secretary-general (report, October 25). His remarks about the 56 years of Palestinian servitude certainly do not reflect history. Hamas is a terrorist organisation that has run Gaza into the ground – economically and socially – and is morally corrupt in its use of the Palestinians as shields for its attacks on Israel.

Even in the north, Hezbollah is only interested in attacking Israel and not in trying to create some sort of order in dysfunctional Lebanon. Is it any wonder that Israel defends the economic and social miracle that it 
has created from those around it, who are interested only in a state of chaos? The news is full of Israeli air attacks on pinpoint targets in Gaza and the unfortunate civilian pawns behind whom the terrorists hide, but there is little mention of the rockets fired at Israel from within Gaza.

In Israel, sirens sound and its Iron Dome air defence system comes into action. In Gaza, even after specific warnings, few if any precautions are taken. The terrorists hide in their tunnels and the innocent civilians are left to fend for themselves. How is Israel denying the Palestinians their rights? The UN should be ashamed of its secretary-general’s remarks.

John Hinton
East Bergholt, Suffolk

Renters Bill reprieve 

SIR – I am relieved that common sense has prevailed with an indefinite delay to Michael Gove’s proposal to ban no-fault evictions in the Renters Reform Bill (report, October 24).

It was obvious and well-publicised from the outset that, among a number of deeply concerning consequences, such a move would have an adverse effect on the number of landlords in the market and therefore upon the tenants which the legislation was designed to assist.

It is alarming that a Conservative Government could have spent such time and civil service resources in drafting such poorly thought through legislation. It once again highlights the dangers of MPs heading up government departments in which they have no background or understanding.

Nick Redman
Shipbourne, Kent

SIR – Any move to scrap the section 21 no-fault eviction clause is misguided. 

Within the private rented sector there are a few unworthy landlords but many more difficult tenants. When a tenancy is not working it is probably best for everybody if it is ended, and the most humane and cost-effective way to do that is via the no-fault route. To take a tenant to court is a very expensive process for the landlord even if successful, since costs will probably not be recovered from an evicted tenant.

If section 21 were scrapped, it would be impossible to end an unworkable tenancy, save by an evidence-based confrontation with a tenant in court. This wouldn’t resolve anything as an unsuccessful landlord application would have so soured the relationship as to make the tenancy non-viable. 

The fault line in all this is the courts. Dragged-out procedures and adjournments could cause many private landlords to quit the business all together.

Roger McAll
Cowbeech, East Sussex

Whodunnit?

SIR – I too saw The Mousetrap before it opened in London (Letters, October 24). This was at the Leeds Grand Theatre in November 1952, when I was 14. I still have the autographs of the stars of the play, Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim, obtained by patiently waiting at the stage door for them to emerge after the show. 

Very happy memories, and I have never told anyone, even my husband, “who did it”.

Susan Appleson
Leeds, West Yorkshire

How to make a 230-year-old opera relevant

SIR – I wonder what Stephen Harris expects of Don Giovanni (Letters, October 19)? An attempt to replicate the first performance in Prague in 1787, perhaps? And what would characterise a “traditional” opera? Castrati? The style of performing known as “park and bark”, which involves little or no acting or movement by the singers? 

The Longborough Festival Opera’s 2019 production of Don Giovanni (directed by Martin Constantine), of which Mr Harris complains, was indeed set in the locker room of a gym, and was an exciting and compelling production with great characterisation. It also made a point: at the conclusion the women were clearly pleased by the outcome, but then noticed that the men were – once again – donning their white-towelling robes, and realised that little had really changed. 

The English translation, by the great Mozart and opera specialist Amanda Holden, was in keeping with a modern take on the plot. Surely one of the pleasures of attending an opera that is more than 230 years old is to see what can be made of it centuries later, particularly one that is already a reworking of an earlier Spanish story and the subject of another contemporary opera.

Dr Catherine M S Alexander
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

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