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Dear Oliver,
I am writing to inform you that, after the recent disturbances, I have grave doubts about the “moral attitude” within the Tory Party.
I would go further and suggest that the only money from the Exchequer issuing forth to stem the floods which have devastated huge swathes of the north of England, and according to the venerable Lord Lawson have in no way anything to do with climate change, appears to have been diverted to those areas more financially capable of looking after themselves than most.
I fear that such public funds would be squandered by the frivolous establishment of Tory clubs and the bistros of which your voters are perennial habituees, which I am sure we can agree can have no positive effect on this nation and its people.
Rather than squander this money on those who do not require subsidence, I would propose that you and your party cease your constant pandering to your pals and cronies in order to witness what the real world is like.
I admit that this will be a traumatic experience for many but so too was your election to many of us.
Whereas decent northern people have rallied round in support of one another, your blessed leader did nothing more than give a cursory glance from the rarified view of the elite before sodding off reassured that it was only the peasants that were suffering.
One seems to recall that when the floods hit the south-west he was somewhat more hands on…
I would further point out that, as inner cities adviser in the ’80s, you failed spectacularly to achieve, or even acknowledge, the issue of social inequality, which continues to blight the country to this day.
I pity you, Letwin. You are pathetic, a canker on the arse of this nation, but you are at least a true, blue Tory, and therefore a blowhard hate-monger like the rest of them so the emergence of your repugnant views is hardly a surprise.
Rather it is merely further evidence, as if any were required, of the odious opinions and bigotries which continue to be so prevalent within the serried ranks of your party.
Yours sincerely,
McGuffin.
It wouldn’t be the new year without a senior Tory being undone by the emergence of ill-advised correspondence from their past.
This week, under the 30-year rule, a five-page memo co-authored by arch-Thatcherite Oliver Letwin — now David Cameron’s most trusted policy adviser — blamed the 1985 riots in Broadwater Farm, Toxteth, St Pauls and elsewhere as the result of “bad moral attitudes” among the predominantly black communities.
He dismissed the blatantly obvious fact that the unrest was a result of decades of deprivation and police harassment and brutality, claiming that similarly deprived “white” communities had never reacted in the same way.
Setting aside the fact that this is patently untrue — the Luddites, the Chartists, anyone? — there is also the glaring point that members of “white communities” tended not be as likely to be beaten up or shot by the boys in blue.
As if that were not bad enough, he went on to claim that investment in the area would merely fuel the “drug and disco” trade and would in effect only “subsidise Rastafarian arts and crafts workshops.”
Yes, because that’s all black people do isn’t it…?
Letwin, in a squirming pseudo-apology, said that the memo was a “historical document” and that he was sorry it had been badly worded in places.
Hmm, the places that make you look like a grand wizard in the KKK, you mean?
He said: “I want to make clear that some parts of a private memo I wrote nearly 30 years ago were both badly worded and wrong.
“I apologise unreservedly for any offence these comments have caused and wish to make clear that none was intended.”
Of course what he really means is that it was never intended that his xenophobic views became public.
The claim that this was all a long time ago also doesn’t hold water. It may have been almost 30 years ago but HE’S STILL IN GOVERNMENT and, as policy minister for the Cabinet Office, is the key adviser to the Prime Minister.
In a hastily dashed-off attempt at damage limitation, a Cabinet Office spokesman risibly claimed: “We remain thoroughly committed to helping the most vulnerable and ensuring that nobody is confined by the circumstances of their birth.”
Yes, by kicking them off benefits, denigrating them as scroungers, blaming them for their own misfortune, mocking their afflictions and forcing them to work themselves to death.
Now why does that sound familiar?
Today, just as in 1985, the poorest are trampled underfoot, communities are set against each other by deliberately divisive policies targeting ethnic minorities and, just as it was back then, if you were born into money it seems you can do anything you want.
Plus ca change…
