John Harris’s Labour 2020 analysis (Who should Labour speak for now?, 13 July) could be as helpful to the Liberal Democrats as to Labour – perhaps, in the long run, rather more useful than his G2 feature on fitting the party’s MPs into a Mazda Bongo (The strange death of the Liberal Democrats, G2, 13 July). Traditionally, a shorthand way of distinguishing liberals from socialists philosophically (at least from a liberal perspective) was to say that socialists looked for a redistribution of money and liberals focused on a redistribution of power. Obviously there is a large area of overlap in terms of outcomes and, to some extent, policies, but these aims can indicate different routes to a fairer and more fulfilling society.
The trade union origins of the British Labour party have made it difficult for it to get beyond the wealth and work priorities. It may be that Labour’s future attitude on the electoral system will be one test as to whether it can do this. For liberals, PR was always about power to the people and never simply about self-interest. The Lib Dems have surely thrown off the latter accusation by showing that they can lose in spectacular fashion under both PR and first past the post. This summer is a time for both parties to take to heart Churchill’s advice about never letting a good crisis go to waste – and decide what they do about the origins of their political values in a way that will shape much of their future way beyond 2020.
Geoff Reid
Bradford
• While I fully concur with John Harris on the issues facing the Lib Dems and Labour, I feel he’s missed one of the possible futures open for both of these claimants of Britain’s progressive tradition: a formal electoral arrangement, if not outright merger. For a century now, both Labour and liberalism have been shooting each other in the foot, as the Tories have been quietly running the country from the sidelines.
Even though there were (and are) solid reasons for this state of affairs, perhaps now, with the Lib Dems virtually extinct in parliament partly due to their dalliance with the Conservatives, and a Labour party torn between a return to Bennery or the sterility of spadism, some form of cooperation might be the best way to tackle the Tories.
Russell Blackwell
Dyserth, Denbighshire
• In John Harris’s piece, Vince Cable notes the problem that the values and policies that the Lib Dems have stood for, and argued for, are currently out of favour with the public. Another way of putting it is: how are we/they going to get a caring government voted in by an increasingly self-centred electorate? Perhaps we are facing a battle for the soul of our nation?
Rev Phil Townsend
Sheffield
