Letter: No Tory place for us

Letter:No Tory place for us

Sir: So now we moderate Conservatives know where we belong - outside the Conservative Party ("Hague expels pro-euro grandees", June 23).

When I first went to work for the Conservative Central Office in 1978, the accepted wisdom was that we should stay and fight from within for a Conservative Party which would continue to accommodate all strands of Conservatism. Realists like me questioned that wisdom repeatedly over the last 20 years but were persuaded by idealist to stay; things were about to change for the better, they said every time. Things got worse but loyalty and a belief that the Conservative Party should be a broad church kept me in.

The final straw came at last year's Conservative Party conference when William Hague told people like me there was no room for us in his Conservative Party. I resigned from the party in January. It is time for others to do the same.

If William Hague's Conservative Party cannot accommodate Lord Gilmour and Sir Julian Critchley it cannot accommodate me - or the thousands of others who voted for the Pro-Euro Conservative Party this June and the many more who, out of idealism and loyalty (or despair), chose not to vote rather than to vote for a Conservative list of candidates which would ensure the election of more Eurosceptics than pro-Europeans.

They should leave the Conservative Party, before they are summarily dismissed.

JOANNA BIDDOLPH

London W4