Harsh words

Sir: Noreen J. Pryor’s harsh words and insinuations about Rowan Dean in particular and the Spectator in general in relation to Tony Abbott being stripped of the Prime Ministership combined with speculation in the media about Abbott’s future contribution to Australian political life led me to reflect on the career of Bill Hughes – I know, I’m a historian and I need to get out more. (‘Conspiracy Theory’, The Spectator,10.10.2015) Hughes, Australia’s seventh Prime Minister (1915-1923), like Abbott, English born, was in the Australian Federal Parliament for 51 years (and had been in a colonial parliament for seven years before Federation). He was still a sitting member of Parliament when he died aged 90 in 1952!

During his over half century as a parliamentarian Hughes was a member of almost every political party then extant. At the 50th Jubilee dinner of the Commonwealth Parliament, a speaker paying tribute to Hughes described him as a man ‘who sat in every Parliament since federation – and every party too!’ Arthur Fadden, joining in the fun, interjected – ‘Not the Country Party!’ To which Hughes, a famous wit, replied, ‘I had to draw the line somewhere.’ The Country Party, of course is now the ‘junior’ Coalition partner the Nationals.

Tony Abbott is a parliamentary stripling compared to Hughes. He has, as reflected in the fact that only a handful of votes cost him the Prime Ministership (he would certainly have won if the vote had been a vote of all Coalition members) and in the surge of support by Liberal Party supporters since he was replaced as leader, a very strong support base – and political record – from which to launch a continuing political involvement at the highest level.

Australian political life is very volatile and the public’s mood extremely changeable, it is entirely possible that Tony Abbott could, in the fullness of time (hopefully sooner rather than later), regain the leadership of the Liberal Party.

Political adventurer and opportunist that he was I suspect that if Billy Hughes was in Abbott’s position he would, despite his jocular protestation to the contrary, have no hesitation in redrawing and stepping over ‘the line’ – he would join the National Party and attempt to lead it to victory at the next election.
Bill Anderson
Surrey Hills, Vic

Old Salisbury

Sir: Michael Davis in Blue Blood Notes (Spectator 10 Oct.) struck a truly nostalgic note when after quoting Waugh on Rhodesia, he expressed a yearning to spend one last evening in old Salisbury.

Now aged 84 I spent my last evening in Salisbury in March 1965 when it became time to leave with a family of three small children to ensure our future away from the violence about to break out.

The fifteen years I spent in that beautiful country indeed encompassed all the joys of the waning years of colonial life which Waugh more or less accurately described although bed at 9pm is doubtful but then he was writing of days before television and the sundown alcohol may have suggested early nights by that time.

The good life was all of Saturday dances at Highlands Park, sundowners in the round bars of the Coq d’or or Blue Room, Lawns in the sun with gin and tonics before lunch on Sundays, sport and conversation in the Salisbury Sports Club, performances by Salisbury Repertory Players, racing at Borrowdale Park. and the rest.

I went back some 32 years later to a great disappointment but with full understanding.
Tony Knight
Tallwoods Village, NSW

Scotland isn’t failing

Sir: It will take more than Adam Tomkins descending from the heights of academe to persuade the Scots that education, health, policing and everything else in Scotland is failing (‘The SNP’s One-Party State,’ 17 October). Scots aren’t stupid: they have heard all this before from the unionist press, and they don’t believe it. That’s why, after seven years in power, support for the SNP is still growing. Meanwhile, the Tories continue to have dreadful results in Scotland, despite having an articulate and personable leader in Ruth Davidson and no competition any more from the Lib Dems.

Here’s two reasons why: first, most Scots have come to the conclusion that in Scotland there is one party that talks about Scotland, and three that talk only about the SNP. Second, there is the perception that the London Tories seem bent upon being offensive to Scotland even in minor things, like appointing a failed Scottish businesswoman to the House of Lords.
David McCarthy
Parks of Aldie, Kinross

It’s worse than that

Sir: Adam Tomkins’s account of the excesses of the SNP government in Scotland tells barely the half of it as far as education goes. The nationalisation of further education colleges, the profoundly troubling indifference to the autonomy of Scotland’s universities, and, most recently, proposals to interfere in the appointment of heads of independent schools all indicate a government that has lost the proper awareness that all democratic governments should have that the nation, the state, the government and the governing party are not all the same thing.

Worryingly, Scotland’s devolved institutions were designed at a time when no one party could realistically expect to gain an absolute majority under proportional representation. The checks that might otherwise have been put in place are therefore absent. Those advocating the repeal of the Human Rights Act should ponder what the long-term consequences of such a repeal might be for the institutions and people of Scotland.
Melvyn Roffe
Edinburgh