5:50pm Sunday 13th December 2009
I DON’T think Alan Lowe’s view of some of our recent history, Guardian, November 25, accords too well with the facts.
At the time of the Falklands War, far from refusing to talk to the Argentine government as he claims, there was a protracted effort by the UK to engage with the Argentineans.
They in fact had no government as such. The country was run by a military junta, headed by the dictator, Galtieri, who sent an invasion force to the Falkland Islands on April 2, 1982.
Mr Lowe calls the Tory government of the time “incompetent”, but actually the response was immediate and effective. A task force mounted a hazardous operation, travelling eight thousand miles to free the islands in a period of 74 days. This success was due firstly to the courage and professionalism of our front line forces along with good planning and leadership, and secondly to the will and commitment of the politicians.
As regards the denationalisation of some of leading businesses, does he not know that his own party recognised the wisdom of this policy when they abolished Clause 4 of their constitution in 1995?
Those who remember vandalised phone boxes and months of waiting for a new phone will thank the Lord and the Tories that in 1984 BT was privatised.
One of the things that the present government should be least proud of is its widespread use of “spin”.
Mr Lowe’s letters are always full of it. For example, the recession of 1987 becomes of ‘epic proportions’, what does that make the present mess I wonder?
Mr Lowe will be too young to remember the war years, but I remember them well and the times we listened to the words of our greatest ever Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
His speeches were always honest and free of false promises, unlike the lies of today about events such as the war in Iraq. What a contrast.
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