Letter: Think British, not English

Sir: Andrew Gamble in his interesting review of new right thinking ("The Right may yet rule the Nineties", 30 June) concludes by saying that "it is far from being a spent force". However, almost unconsciously, he puts his finger on the insoluble contradiction at the heart of the Tory new right project.

He talks of an assertion of "English nationalism" as being indispensable for the revival of Conservative support, but if this is so, it can only increase the alienation from the Tories already clearly felt in Scotland, Wales and northern England - as witnessed in the recent local election results. The most likely consequence of such a move will not be the renewal of the Tory party, but rather its reduction at the next general election to a regional sect with its epicentre in Essex.

To renew itself, the Tory party would need to construct a political programme that appeals to a British, not a southern English, identity. It should by now be self-evident that this cannot be done from a position of extreme ideology, whether right or left, a point that seems to have at last been firmly grasped by Tony Blair and his post-Clause IV New Labour.

Simon Partridge

London, N2

30 June