In a letter published in The Times on December 4 under the headline “Feldman’s folly”, Alistair Lexden argued that Andrew Feldman, the Conservative Party’s controversial Chairman, ought to have been a great Party reformer, but nothing has become of the wide-ranging inquiry that he promised to prepare the way for it.
Sir, Andrew Feldman may or may not survive the scandal that has engulfed the Tory party’s organisation. He came to the post of party chairman as an outsider, the only businessman to hold it since the great Lord “Uncle Fred” Woolton who reformed the entire party organisation after the war to its infinite benefit. He “created an infectious and compelling enthusiasm” throughout the party, as he put it in his memoirs, partly by setting its members the target of raising £1 million, which was readily accomplished. Total membership soared to more than three million.
Today the party structure, serving a shrunken membership of some 100,000, cries out for radical reform. Andrew Feldman promised to take it up after the election, but instead he has settled for making what survives “more responsive to the leader’s office” (“Cheerleader helped PM every step of the way”, Dec. 1). A major opportunity for Conservative party revival has been squandered.
Lord Lexden
Director, Conservative Political Centre 1988-97
House of Lords