WILLIAM HAGUE, the Conservative leader, went a little while ago on a nation-wide 'listening' tour to discover at first hand (instead of via the media opinion-benders) what might persuade the British public to return his party to power at the next general election.

His announcement of the pending tour implied a preparedness to amend party policy wherever it seemed necessary accommodate majority opinion, in particular among disaffected Tory supporters. But there seems little sign that young William learned very much from his travels. Maybe a further tour is called for. Should he be contemplating such a thing, may I, as one management consultant (of considerably greater experience) to another, offer him some advice about the design and conduct of his survey, as well as the interpretation and publication of its findings.

This advice falls into five parts, which are as follows:- (1) Do not allow the preconceptions of your senior policy-shapers to 'filter' the survey questions and answers. After all, they are going to want the results to validate their own highly questionable theories. (2) Put the following mandatory questions to all people regarding the next party election manifesto:-

• (a) Should we steadfastly maintain the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom?
• (b) Should we declare total opposition to a Federal Europe and our intention to restore this country's status as a fully independent nation-state?
• (c) Should we declare an immediate embargo on all immigrants and all 'asylum-seekers'?
• (d) Should we give an undertaking to repatriate at least 75 per cent of non-Europeans in Britain within 10 years of offering generous financial assistance to those concerned?
• (e) Should we take effective measures to protect our own industries, and thus our workers' jobs, against unfair foreign competition?
• (f) Should taxation policy be seen to favour the two-parent family with both parents bound in marriage?

• (g) Should education curricula and the mass media be required to foster enlightened patriotism and personal morality?

• (h) Should capital punishment be restored for the most heinous crimes, such as child-murder and terrorism?
• (j) Should we prohibit promotion and public display of homosexuality?
• (k) Should we restrict the use of the armed forces to national defence only, and stop them being sent on foreign adventures?

3. Disregard all demands for increased expenditure on the NHS and education as parrot-cry politics from the dependency culture and self-serving professions.

4. Whatever it may cost in party defections, try to face up to the fact that virtually all of this country's present socio-economic problems have been hugely compounded and magnified by the presence of several million immigrants from the Third World and their descendants. Unless and until this is seen to be acknowledged and acted upon, there is nothing - I repeat nothing - you can say that is worth listening to. Any honest political manifesto must not only declare unequivocal policies on this matter but also identify the intended beneficiaries of the problem. For example, should we really be spending more money on inner-city schools and hospitals swarming with Third Worlders? And do we really need to be building more houses (including houses in the countryside) when several million aliens are occupying the existing ones? Further, if the same aliens are doing useful work they are thereby depriving the native British of jobs; and if they are not they represent a crippling burden on the British taxpayer.

So be prepared to explain how you can make any improvements to the quality of life in Britain in the near future which are not automatically cancelled out by an immigrant population still increasing by at least sixty thousand a year, not counting 'illegals' and the birth rate of those already here.

And note the irony that this disastrous situation has been created by politicians who refused to listen to the British people's disquiet about the enforced colonisation of their homeland.

And we want good jobs, good homes, good social services and a good quality of life for our own kith and kin before trying to improve the lot of Third World countries.

5. If you cannot or will not undertake to restore this country to its own people, then they must turn to those who most certainly will - when, as seems inevitable, the social order collapses. And if you choose to dismiss all this as 'racism' you have misjudged the basic character, instincts and aspirations of the British people to an extent that completely disqualifies you from any significant role in our national life.

You must therefore choose between the grubby expedient of ingratiating yourself with the immigrant population - an exercise in which your Labour opponents will always outflank and outbid you - or honestly representing the indigenous British people. Fail on this crucial test and, from the standpoint of your own countrymen and women, you can succeed at nothing else.