I have just caught up with Lynsey Hanley’s eulogy to Roy Jenkins and her dismissal of Keir Starmer as unlikely to live up to what in reality is a social liberal mythology that surrounded one of the founders of the Social Democratic party (Labour will win by changing minds – not pandering to rightwing voters, 16 July).
Strange to eulogise about someone who was responsible for splitting the centre-left, and to present him as an example of how, in her words, to avoid “pandering” to those who voted Conservative, sometimes for the first time.
Those of us who have been in politics a very long time are familiar with the ridiculous adage that we should not “compromise” with the voters. But, interestingly, a real examination of Jenkins and his achievements may come to a different conclusion to the web of historic method that surrounds him.
All the aspects of social liberalism which Hanley mentions are either the responsibility of private members’ bills that, in his time as home secretary, Jenkins was benign enough to give a fair wind in providing government time, or inherited from his predecessor.
However, the most telling action of Jenkins, whatever his merits, was the drafting of the early versions of the 1968 Race Relations Act which he bequeathed to Jim Callaghan. Sadly, this was not a liberal response to Enoch Powell but a reaction to the support he was receiving following his infamous speech.
David Blunkett
Labour, House of Lords
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
