Letters | 30 August 2008

We did it, not the state

Sir: I am not a social historian but surely Liam Byrne fatally undermines his whole argument when he praises the founding of various organisations and movements 150 years ago to deal with the ‘huge change which swept millions from the countryside to the cities’ (‘Give us back our Big Idea, Mr Cameron’, 16 August). Isn’t the whole point that the state did not do this — individuals and groups did? Less state interference allows individuals and groups to help their communities and Britain as a whole rather than being strangled by the red tape, form-filling and box-ticking so beloved by Liam Byrne and New Labour. Clearly Mr Byrne hasn’t been on enough doorsteps recently — if he had he would know that any politician arguing for less government will be greeted with relief and enthusiasm.

Nicky Morgan

Loughborough Conservative parliamentary spokesman, Loughborough, Leicestershire

Shear delight

Sir: I have no connection with the Big Sheep, Bideford, other than as a visitor, but I feel bound to counter the negative impression given by Rachel Johnson’s Diary (23 August), in which she and her family ‘drove for two hours to watch a sheepdog herd three ewes’.