I am a Tory to my toes

It is modestly flattering to find one’s views the subject of occasional comment by contributors to The Spectator. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is the latest to have a run at it (‘A question of loyalty’, 31 May). Perhaps I could assist future exegesis by setting out what my views actually are.

First, I agree with Arthur Balfour that most human beings are capable of embracing a number of loyalties and identities at the same time. It is possible, for the sake of argument, to be a Canadian-born citizen with a British passport and a seat in the House of Lords. Churchill went further, arguing in 1930 that as international structures became more complex such overlapping loyalties would become not just possible but necessary. ‘From every man,’ he suggested, ‘will someday be required not the merging or discarding of various loyalties, but their simultaneous reconciliation in a complete or larger synthesis.’ The nation-state remains, for me, the primary focus of identity, and its institutions command the deepest loyalty.