A Point Well Made

Sir Nicholas Winterton may have had what now look like rather minor troubles over his allowances. His wife may have an unfortunate sense of humour. But his defence at PMQs of the importance of a strong manufacturing base, itself indispensable both to national self-government and to cultural integrity, was a sign of how important is still the voice that opposed first Thatcherism and then Maastricht on grounds of economically populist, morally and socially conservative, staunchly Unionist, strongly church-based Toryism.