YOU invited comments on the Conservative leadership election. I offer mine. Elections are the truest public opinion poll and politicians ignore them at their peril.
The Labour party got the message that under Michael Foot's leadership they had lost the middle ground. The electorate clearly told them. For them it was change or face many more years in opposition. The Conservatives are now in the same position. A move further to the right under Iain Duncan Smith would leave the middle ground, where victory is won, unattainable.
We are now in the last change saloon. Before you can lay claim to government the party must prove its effectiveness in opposition and recapture the middle ground to the millions who no longer support us.
Kenneth Clarke's undoubted experience qualifies him for this task. Duncan Smith has demonstrated he has yet to learn.
John Clout,
Acomb Road, York.
Updated: 10:51 Thursday, August 30, 2001
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