Letter: Conservatives lack the will to win

Sir: Your political editor, Anthony Bevins, quotes Sir Norman Fowler ('Tories target Fowler as scapegoat for defeat', 31 July) as saying that 'the whole thing about politics is to try to get over the policies that you are carrying out', and that 'what we need to do is to get our message over more clearly'. He is in Cloud-cuckoo-land. The Tory party does not have a communication problem. The airwaves heave with the voices of Tory politicians. They have not done at all badly in putting across their message. It is their message that is the problem.

The arrangement made with the Unionists over the Maastricht vote, for example, was a disgrace. The message there was that the Tories were prepared to do a trade-off to secure the Government's survival, at the expense of any progress made towards reconcilation - and any respect for Britain's good faith - in the island of Ireland.

The more clearly we understand Tory policies, the most recent of which are VAT on fuel and privatising our forests (or was it the air we breathe?), the less we like them. Sir Norman should think again.

Yours sincerely,

VICTORIA GLENDINNING

London, NW5