There has been much comment during the election campaign about the threat to the Union posed by the SNP. In a letter published in The Spectator on May 2 (see below), Alistair Lexden expressed regret that that the Conservative Party had not done more to defend the unity of the country as a whole during the last year or to indicate—by means of a long-term constitutional plan—how it could be safeguarded in the face of the SNP challenge.
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Sir: For once Bruce Anderson does not exaggerate: David Cameron did indeed win golden opinions for his ‘high intellect and low cunning’ at the 1992 election (‘The boy David’, 25 April), putting him among the most brilliant products of the Conservative Research Department over its long history. He contributed magnificently to the widely praised briefing material that the Department produced for Tory candidates, in particular its 350-page Campaign Guide (a publication now discontinued after appearing at elections for 120 years, despite Cameron’s own boast that this is the “most organised” campaign in his career).
But there was more. Thanks to Bruce and others, no one in the place understood more clearly that the supreme object of the Conservative Party is the preservation of the nation. What has happened to this instinctive Tory faith? If he had proclaimed it eloquently and vigorously to the country as a whole last year, Scottish separatism could have been resoundingly defeated at the referendum. By placing undue emphasis on the narrow interests of England without any long-term constitutional plan to bind the entire nation together, the Tory campaign at this election is in danger of contributing to the further weakening of the Union, a prospect that it should be determined at all costs to avoid.
Alistair Lexden
(Deputy Director, Conservative Research Department 1985-97)
House of Lords, London SW1