The most telling aspect of Polly Toynbee’s piece (Here’s what might have been, 26 May) is the difference between what a Labour Queen’s speech might have contained and what the currently declared candidates for the Labour leadership are saying. This suggests that all candidates were lying to the electorate during the campaign since they are all, to varying degrees, backtracking on the policies on which they campaigned, just days after the election. If they were not lying then, this is a clear indication that their currently expressed beliefs are designed not to signal a future direction for Labour, but to get themselves elected. I was on the point of sending in my £3 so that I could take part in the vote for a new leader, but so far I’ve heard nothing in which I would want to invest my money. What is the point of allowing several months for reflection about what went wrong when the candidates have already decided that what is needed is Tory lite, presumably because that’s what the focus groups say. Whatever happened to politicians with convictions? Or is it that they all have convictions, but if we don’t like these, they have others?
Alan Healey
Bishops Castle, Shropshire
• A well argued article by Gaby Hinsliff (29 May) on what older women have to offer to politics. I would point out to Harriet Harman, Labour’s acting leader, that the majority of jobs and salaried political appointments made by Labour MPs still appear to be going to young men under 28 called Dan. Would Ms Harman ensure that she conducts an age and gender audit of all new political salaried appointments in the new 2015 parliament to ensure there is a proper age and gender balance. and issue new guidance to her MPs on this. This should cover special advisers too. This one simple act would change the face of politics, particularly in Westminster, and the resulting visual representation of British politics.
Boni Sones
Executive producer, www.parliamentaryradio.com – for women
