He had a house in France and , despite his conservatism , was a fervent supporter of European integration and the single currency , which he saw as a means of de-Americanising the UK . He said that his ideal government would be a " junta of Belgian ticket inspectors " . Neither did he conform to reactionary stereotypes in his strong opposition to the death penalty , or in his antipathy towards the police force in general ( especially when they sought to prevent drink-driving ; Waugh believed strongly that this was not as serious a problem as it is widely believed to be , and referred to the anti-drink-driving campaign as the " police terror " ) . He opposed anti-tobacco smoking legislation ( despite a heart condition which was ultimately to kill him prematurely ) and in his later years he was highly critical of Labour attempts to ban fox hunting . In 1995 he fervently opposed attempts by the then Home Secretary Michael Howard to introduce a national identity card , a policy which at the time was opposed by the Labour opposition . Along with Patrick Marnham and Richard West , Waugh was one of three signatories to a letter to '' The Times '' that called for a British monument to honour those repatriated as a result of the Yalta Conference , it was eventually erected in 1986
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Auberon Waugh