‘Debate’s exciting so let’s have it’ ANN WIDDECOMBE Conservative MP If you say New Statesman you are talking about something influential beyond that
Posted in General on 04. Sep, 2010
‘Debate’s exciting, so let’s have it’
ANN WIDDECOMBE Conservative MP
If you say New Statesman, you are talking about something influential beyond that. But The Spectator belongs to the Conservatives, right-wing academics and right-wing journalists – that is, not using right-wing in a pejorative sense I remember when I read The Spectator avidly every week It was essential Now I read it if it happens to be there. In terms of the Conservative Party, this is a very exciting time of debate. We are about to take part in an election which we stand a good chance of winning.
We need open debate about subjects like, for example, the NHS. It’s the sort of debate you can’t always have within the party because when you raise it, people think you are immediately talking about privatisation. Within the Speccie, you can open up these debates and canvas a wide range of opinions This is where the magazine is useful. This too, could be a very exciting time for The Spectator.’Stay in tune with the essence’MICHAEL GOVE Conservative MPThere will be differences of emphasis, taste and approach from Boris Johnson to Matthew d’Ancona Matt has a great sense of humour and a light touch. Because of his job on the Telegraph that hasn’t always been obvious. Boris is slightly more of an anarchist, while Matt is more sympathetic to the challenges of people running institutions.
He’s the prefect keeping order while Boris is the boy throwing the chewing gum You can exaggerate the influence of The Spectator. A lot of Conservative politicians read it and it’s a good platform for writing, but one wouldn’t give it the elevated status of being the Conservatives’ magazine any more than the Carlton being the club. The Spectator’s duty is to be true to its essence, at times iconoclastic, and always a good read. It shouldn’t be a political annexe of the Conservative Party The Spectator should play to its strengths. Matt is more than intelligent enough to know that.’More politics would lose readers’SIR PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE Former editor, ‘The Sunday Telegraph’Matthew d’Ancona is a clever man, but it’s difficult to be as lively as Boris. D’Ancona is a good thing but Andrew Neil, I’m not so sure about.