I agree with Owen Jones (Labour would save the NHS – but it won’t save labour, 1 December) that Labour needs to find a message that “chimes with the concerns of the overwhelming majority of society”. However, he said nothing about how Labour must convince voters that it is a party of patriots, for patriots.
When up against the forces of the Conservative right and Ukip, it is easy for some to conflate patriotism with nationalism but patriotism is, as George Orwell notes, “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life”, while nationalism is a poisonous force that disregards the national interest.
Labour does not currently hold a strong record for patriotism. Its leader at one point chose not to sing the national anthem, its shadow foreign secretary poked fun at a house draped in St George’s flags and the fact that the four most senior Labour MPs represent London constituencies makes the party seem as if it has turned its back on the rest of the country.
What unites most parties and people is the love of their country and way of life. I have no doubt that Labour MPs are patriotic but they must hammer that message home.
Gabriel Osborne
Bristol
• How depressing to read the letters challenging and opposing Caroline Lucas’s calls for a progressive alliance involving Labour, Lib Dems and Greens (Letters, 29 November).
To Michael Meadowcroft, I would ask for a definition of the “philosophy” that includes the views of Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Liz Kendall and Hilary Benn but excludes those of Tim Farron.
To the Greens who oppose the EU single market, I would like to highlight the many measures to protect the environment put in place through EU legislation and which can best be enhanced and developed through further cooperation.
To those laboriously searching for the definition of a “party of the left”, I would like to draw attention to the laughter and glee of Ukip, whose simplistic populism looks likely to trump a confused and chaotic Labour party.
Rob Ratcliff
Chippenham, Wiltshire
• The only way of defeating the forces of reaction electorally is for left-of-centre parties: Labour, the SNP, the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats to begin a conversation around how they can come together to defend the common values they share and offer hope to all those who are appalled at the implications of a further Conservative government. This will not be easy, but none of these parties has a monopoly on good ideas and all, including Labour and the Lib Dems, have made huge mistakes in the recent past. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous. Rather than criticising other left-of-centre parties, I suggest people come out of their silos and begin to talk about how we can come together to defeat the right and offer hope rather than despair.
Sarah Perrigo
Leeds
• Labour’s old industrial heartlands have certainly given two fingers to today’s Labour party and the political and financial establishment, but this doesn’t mean they are about to jump into bed with Ukip (Douglas Carswell, Opinion, 29 November). They voted against the lack of decent jobs, low pay, austerity, the shortage of decent affordable housing, overcrowded schools and the wrecking of the NHS. They know that the UK is a low-wage economy and that the problem is not migrants or controlling our borders. It’s about controlling the companies, company bosses and shareholders that are addicted to cheap labour.
Turning the old Labour heartlands Green is now part of the Green party’s strategy, as only the Green party has the policies to stop the wrecking of these communities. Jobs, especially green jobs, a decent minimum wage that is properly enforced, a return of trade union rights, an increase in energy-efficient social housing, an end to private landlords’ greed, schools that educate individuals and an end to any form of privatisation of the NHS. How will this be paid for? By having the political will to collect tax.
Michael Gold
Green candidate for Walthamstow 2015
• Ukip’s latest “leader of the month”, Paul Nuttall, has been spending too much time with professional politicians if he thinks that having a scouse accent and coming from the north-west will make his party an even greater threat to Labour (Report, 29 November). Labour has accepted the outcome of the referendum; now it must develop a coherent platform of policies that will remind past and present supporters that there are still many good reasons to vote for an optimistic social democratic alternative, rather than appealing to the pessimism and fear that has contributed to Ukip’s rise.
Les Bright
Exeter, Devon
• What has Steve Bell (1 December) got against toads?
Paul Houghton
Towcester, Northamptonshire
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