The Spectator

Gnome territory This year only, garden gnomes are allowed at the Chelsea Flower Show. Some other places to see them: Germany. The home of the gnome, where the first batch were manufactured in 1841, has an estimated 25 million. European Gnome Sanctuary, Barga, Italy. A town whose parks and gardens have become a dumping ground for stolen gnomes, promoted by an underground Gnome Liberation Front. Bed of Wast Water, Cumbria. In 2005 the North West Police Underwater Search Unit removed a gnome on the lake bed blamed for luring several inexperienced divers to their deaths. More gnomes promptly appeared — this time below the depth limit at which police divers work. Taxing calculations David Cameron wrote to British dependencies asking for more help fighting tax avoidance.

Stay Conservative Sir: Dr John Hyder-Wilson wrote (Letters, 11 May) of my calls to ‘shift Tory party policy rightward’ to meet a threat from Ukip, which he felt was inconsistent as he could not remember me advocating a leftward shift in response to a threat from the SDP/Alliance in the early 1980s. Of course he could not. I am afraid that he is in a muddle. I responded then to the SDP/Alliance, and would do so now to Ukip in exactly the same way, by advocating Conservative policies for the Conservative party. As Dr Hyder-Wilson may remember, Margaret Thatcher won her third election victory on Conservative policies after eight years in office governing on those policies. In that victory she secured more votes than at her first victory.