THE former Tory MP Matthew Parris wrote in his Times column yesterday about receiving a letter from a reader ‘taking me to task for my support for HS2’. The reader ‘railed against it violently for a closely written page’ and had posted it in an envelope bearing bloodstains.
Mr Parris writes: ‘I had no idea a proposal for a railway could excite such passion. I contemplated sprinkling a little rose-water on my reply.’
Parris has form. As Laura Perrins reported at the time, in a sneering 2014 article about Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, he wrote: ‘I am not arguing that we should be careless of the needs of struggling people and places such as Clacton. But I am arguing – if I am honest – that we should be careless of their opinions.’
Could there be a more perfect encapsulation of the contempt of the elite for the ordinary person? Discuss!
