It strikes me that in the last weeks we have seen the remarkable transformation of an idealist into a leader capable of statesmanlike argument on all issues.
In the confused moment of Brexit mania in which the core values of a democratic Britain seem to be drowned by fears of immigrants taking our jobs, an economy dominated by the EU and fear that we are going to be swizzed, Jeremy Corbyn – in a convincing, unflappable way – has laid out the ground plan for a fairer and more integrated Britain.
When he says that the most disadvantaged should not be made to pay for a failure to achieve a balanced economy, I cannot but agree. We need to invest in people; the strength of our economy is utterly dependent on having a healthy, educated and united population, and a government committed to investment in public services and infrastructure.
When I am told that in order to support the necessary work of our National Health Service (truly the monument to our democracy) and allow people to be thinkers, makers, doers and strivers, and halt the diminishment and instrumentalisation of education by paying more taxes, I am happy to do so.
When Corbyn is fighting for a nuclear-free world and yet agrees to follow the party decision to keep Trident, I accept his principled response to a critical issue.
So I am voting for Labour and for this man who can listen as well as lead, who is principled and yet has shown himself capable, in ways that we could not have imagined, of uniting both young and old, rich and poor, recently immigrated and old Britishers.
Jeremy Corbyn, good luck to you and to the country!
Antony Gormley
London
• As a committed Blairite, I have long accepted the settled reality of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour party leader. Alan Johnson admitted on Radio 4 on Tuesday that he and many others have been forced to admit that Corbyn has shown himself to be a credible leader. I could not agree more, and can only marvel at the even greater progress Labour might have made, had Corbyn’s New Labour critics shown more radical thinking and unity, as we did in 1997, and as the power-hungry Tories always do, whomsoever is their leader.
George Monbiot (A Labour win isn’t an impossible dream. We have Corbyn to thank, 7 June) contemplates the tantalising idea of a “government beholden only to the people”. Tomorrow is a pivotal opportunity to make this a reality. It’s time to fully support Mr Corbyn, give credit where it’s due (yes, that means Seumas Milne too), and return a Labour administration determined to put fairness and activist government back on the agenda. What’s on offer isn’t so far from the realities of New Labour once in power. But 20 years on, the UK is a very different place: Corbyn and co have reckoned on an articulate and sophisticated electorate, bypassing a misleading rightwing press with a bold, visionary and fully costed prospectus. Monbiot will be voting Labour in hope tomorrow and so will I, with all the party loyalty and enthusiasm of 1997 and more.
Nick Mayer
Southampton
• Thank you, Polly Toynbee, for summarising so eloquently why I dread waking up on Friday morning to another five years of Theresa May (Here are 10 good reasons to dread five more years of May, 6 June). I was born in this country; I love this country and our way of life. I have benefited from the welfare state and its strengths. As I approach 70 years of age, I am devastated at what Margaret Thatcher and her successors’ warped ideology has done to my country. I no longer recognise the country in which I grew up, worked in and raised a family.
It hasn’t been perfect by any means, but on the whole I have had a sense of optimism, believing in a country where the common good – supported by fair taxation and a sense of tolerance, justice and equality – was key to a civilised and caring society. Now I look around me and despair at the destruction of public services and all that has made me proud to be British. I was devastated by Brexit and felt shame that so many of my generation voted to leave the European Union. I do not worry for myself – the greater part of my life is done – but I worry for my children and grandchildren. I cannot see that they will enjoy the sort of life and benefits that I have enjoyed. If I wake up on Friday to five more years of Tory government, I will feel heartbroken.
Sheila Cook
London
• The Labour party slogan “For the many, not the few” captures a principle and a mindset that this country urgently needs to grasp. It recognises that what will unite and prosper the nation, and thereby all its citizens, are policies and attitudes where we work for and with each other.
By contrast, the Tory time in government and election campaign have plumbed increasing depths of individualism, self-interest, defensiveness, small-mindedness and hard-heartedness. This demonstrates the underlying philosophy which puts each individual in competition with all others, the survival of the fittest, an anarchy of 70 million one-person businesses all trying to outperform the others.
Do we want a country in which we view our fellow citizens as the competition, mistrusting, “othering”, and even demonising some? Or do we want a nation in which we embrace and and respect each other, rejoicing in our diversity, and in which we encourage and support one another, where some will willingly “take one for the team”, where we speak inclusively of “us”, and there is no “them”? The reaction to the Manchester and London attacks demonstrates that there is great desire and capacity for the latter.
There may be no “magic money tree”, but the nation collectively has the resources to give the “many” a much better deal, and much greater dignity. There has to be redistribution of wealth towards the many. It has to be done for the good of the nation.
Andrew McWilliam
Altrincham, Cheshire
• I am a victim of benefit cuts, and in a letter published in this paper two years ago I argued against voting Labour on the grounds that it would not reverse those cuts and would continue to inflict austerity. I advocated voting for the Green party. However, the Labour party redeemed itself and elected as a leader a man with a decades-long record of implacable opposition to injustice: Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour manifesto promises not only to reverse many of the cuts in social security benefits imposed in the past seven years but also to end the sadistic regime of benefit sanctions and work capability assessments that has engendered despair, hunger and suicide – a regime for which the Liberal Democrats bear responsibility, having been part of the coalition that implemented it.
I appeal to all those genuinely concerned about these issues to vote for the only party that can ameliorate the suffering of the poorest people in our society in the immediate future. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the Labour party.
Name and address supplied
• I agree with George Monbiot. Though I have always voted Lib Dem (Liberal) or Green (Ecology) in the past, it has become my most earnest hope that Jeremy Corbyn is our next prime minister. More than any previous election, this one is a choice between hope and despair.
Hugh Dower
Wensleydale, North Yorkshire
