Letters | 12 April 2018

For the many not the few

Sir: As is clear from the last paragraph of your leading article (7 April), the ability of Tony Blair to rewrite history (or persuade others to do so) obviously remains undiminished, although it is surprising to find that your own publication succumbs so easily to his ‘charms’. How many more times does the canard that he and the Labour party pioneered the use of the phrase ‘for the many not the few’ have to be refuted? In fact, it was one of your own former editors, the late and very sadly lamented Iain Macleod, who first used that phrase (and, of course, in a different context) at the Tory party conference on 9 October 1969. I have just listened to my recording of that speech again; I was moved and delighted when I first heard it, and it thrills me still. Imitation, of course, is the sincerest form of flattery, and it is understandable that Mr Corbyn and the socialists should seek to expropriate what they cannot ever hope to equal or achieve.