Evening Press Reader's Letter

The sound-biting of William Hague is honed to perfection by the gag writers at Conservative Central Office - and, no doubt, in front of his shaving mirror each day.

Recently Mr Hague thought he had a gem in the debate on the Queen's speech, saying Tony Blair had two Lord Mayors for London - "Dobson for day Mayor and Livingstone for Nightmares."

Then as he basked in the belly-laughs, Lord Archer grabbed all the headlines, not just for a day but for weeks, maybe months to come.

Mr Hague, who has been nick-named the "Bald Budgie" because of his passing resemblance to the carton character Tweetie Pie, vowed to change his party to win back power. But after nearly three years, all he and his MPs do is keep repeating sound-bites ad nauseam.

Worse, they seem to be living in an unreal world where everyone shares this schoolboy humour - apparently believing our memory of 18 years of Tory government has been wiped-out by a Millennium bug.

Mr Hague's days as a knock-about comic party leader must be coming to an end now, propped up as he is by jingoists and Euro-sceptics - and, of course, his gag writers.

Unlike the cute Tweetie Pie the "Bald Budgie" is clearly doomed. He's a real trier, but sound-bites are no substitute for sound judgement and statesmanship.

Bill Anderson,

Welham Road,

Norton,

Malton.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.