Centrism is not a failure
I was intrigued by Owen Jones’s attempt to repudiate the assumed position of the new centrists as the sole refuge of political sanity (25 August). While he makes a number of valid points, in particular that centrists often define their own stance by positing any opposition as extreme left or extreme right, there are some key issues where I have to disagree.
One of these is that the centrism of Tony Blair and David Cameron shares any common factor other than an attempt to capture the elusive middle ground, as defined by focus groups and polls: in other words, the very pragmatism that Jones denies them.
Where centrism appears to have succeeded, despite Jones’s assertion to the contrary, is with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel: this is largely a reflection of their reliance on offering an apparently softer reading of the liberal capitalist school to which they both belong.
Jones is probably correct in saying that the simplistic categories of left and right no longer explain the political divide. For many observers the split resides in the evident shift in focus, particularly among the better educated and more affluent young, from short-term personal gain and endless economic growth to a more sustainable society that is willing to make sacrifices to ensure a better future for all of humanity.
Noel Bird
Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
Cruel treatment of refugees
We need more journalists like Ben Doherty in Australia. Well done on his article, Hungry, poor, exploited: alarm over Australia’s import of farm workers (25 August). And we need more newspapers that would employ such a journalist: we have one of the most concentrated media ownership environments in the world. The Guardian is one of the media sources we depend on.
The most vile abuse of human rights at the moment must be the holding hostage, on Manus Island and Nauru, of the many people who came looking for refuge and have only been subjected to more trauma. Hamed Shamshiripour is the latest casualty (World roundup, 11 August).
As Noam Chomsky said in 2013: “The true measure of the moral level of a society is how it treats the most vulnerable people. Few are as vulnerable as those who have fled to Australia in terror and are locked away without charge, their terrible fate veiled in secrecy. We may not be able to do much, beyond lamenting, about North Korean prisons. But we can do a great deal about severe human rights violations right within reach.”
Stephen Langford
Sydney, Australia
Another vote on Brexit
How right Vernon Bogdanor is in saying that the UK needs a new Brexit referendum (25 August) before the final step in leaving the European Union is taken. By then the UK electorate will be far more aware of the negative effects of doing so than we were the first time round.
But next time we must be given hard facts and the probable implications, rather than just emotive phrases, with each side childishly slagging off the other. As well as the bigger consequences, attention should also be drawn to the smaller, everyday effects: will internet orders from Europe be subject to customs delays, taxes and form-filling? Will we have to get new passports? New vehicle number plates? Some things will run less smoothly if the UK goes it alone.
Finally, that annoying phrase “the will of the people”. Are the 48% of the electorate who voted to remain in the EU not people? And shouldn’t there be a clear majority – say 25% – opting to leave before such a significant decision is made?
Cynthia Reavell
Hastings, UK
Mass tourism is a menace
I agree with much of what Martin Kettle writes in Tourism is a danger. We are all to blame (18 August). I visited Angkor Wat in 2009 and again in 2014. The number of tourists more than doubled: the difference was Chinese package tours.
I would like to see a hefty carbon tax on jet fuel but I see no stopping mass tourism until the global economy falters. I see this phenomenon as part of a transformation of humanity away from nationalism towards global citizenship. Even people on air-conditioned tour buses may have life-transforming encounters in exotic places or see how civilisations rise and fall. Too bad they don’t see how their comfort and security separates them from really living life.
Edward Butterworth
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Briefly
• In the excellent article Bannon is out – but he may have more influence there (25 August), I find one disturbing point: the author labels everyone protesting against neo-Nazis and white supremacists as being “on the left”. I bet and hope there were people protesting against the neo-Nazis who were politically on the right. Do we have to be divided into left and right even when we are protesting for basic human decency?
Eva Major-Marothy
Sutton, Quebec, Canada
• Your editorial homage to Jane Austen (18 August) notes that none other than Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan “turned to her in moments of darkness”; they are not alone, of course. Avid fans may be reassured by her own avowal in the last chapter of Mansfield Park: “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can.”
Richard Orlando
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
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