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Jolyon Connell
Lacock, Wiltshire
From John Laughland
Sir: It was a pleasure to see Michael Gove MP confirming my long-held view that the anti-Islamist neoconservatism to which he subscribes is a left-wing political philosophy. I have long argued that George Bush’s commitment to a ‘global democratic revolution’ is music to the ears of the string of (former?) Trotskyites whom Gove now says he admires.
But I was a little confused to read his encomium of Christopher Hitchens’s attacks on the ‘anti-war rabble’ for being prepared to see Bosnia and Kosovo ‘cleansed and annexed by Greater Serbia’. Those of us who remain proud members of that rabble today recall with fondness the strident denunciations of the Kosovo war which appeared in the columns of the Times in 1999, penned by none other than the current Hon. Member for Surrey Heath.
John Laughland
Bath
Blair-baiting
From Christopher Booker
Sir: Charles Moore asks for help in refreshing his ‘vivid memory’ as to who said in 1997 that ‘political satirists’ supported Tony Blair so strongly that they couldn’t imagine laughing at him (The Spectator’s Notes, 27 January), and castigates our ‘great iconoclasts’ for only wanting to kick him when is down. It may not be quite the help he is after, but I do recall how, the week after the 1997 election, we launched in Private Eye the St Albion’s Parish News, which has not been entirely supportive of Mr Blair over the past ten years. I also recall, shortly afterwards, submitting an article to Mr Moore as editor of the Daily Telegraph predicting that Mr Blair would be remembered for presiding over the most incompetent, corrupt, control-freaky government in history. Charles said he liked the piece but that perhaps the time wasn’t yet quite right to publish it.
Christopher Booker
Litton, Somerset
Not entirely Trujillo
From Stephen Schwartz
Sir: Taki (High life, 27 January) should know that Rafael Leonidas Trujillo did not rename the Dominican Republic after himself â” only its capital, before and after known as Santo Domingo and briefly as ‘Ciudad Trujillo’, ‘ciudad’ being Spanish for city. And I would have thought Taki would recall that the only country in the world named for its rulers is Saudi Arabia, which did not exist as a name until 1932, when it was retitled by the House of Saud.
Stephen Schwartz
Centre for Islamic Pluralism,
Washington, DC
The diamond conflict
From Eli Izhakoff
Sir: Clemency Burton-Hill is quite right to condemn the illegal trade in conflict diamonds (‘Blood Diamond should help Sierra Leone’, 27 January). We share her sentiment that a single conflict diamond is one too many. However, a number of inaccuracies in the article do merit correction.
At no stage has the legitimate diamond industry sought to convince consumers that the world has ‘seen the end of the trade in illicit diamonds’. The World Diamond Council was formed seven years ago to address the issue of conflict diamonds. While 99.8 per cent of diamonds now come from conflict-free sources (this is not an industry figure but a statistic from a Canadian government report as chair of the Kimberley Process), there are still some who seek to profit from this illegal trade. It is because of this that we continue to work with the UN, governments and NGOs towards a complete eradication of conflict diamonds. In Ghana, for instance, a Kimberley Process review team is trying to ensure that only Ghanaian goods reach the international market. However, it’s worth remembering that diamonds mined in the neighbouring Ivory Coast represent less than 0.2 per cent of the global trade.
I applaud Clemency Burton-Hill for pointing out that a boycott of diamonds would be disastrous for African economies. Overall, the industry contributes over $8 billion in trade each year to Africa. Sierra Leone, now at peace, is using the revenue from diamonds to help fund the long process of reconstruction.
Eli Izhakoff
Chairman, World Diamond Council, New York
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