It’s good that the Guardian keeps reminding the Labour party that it needs more vision, and John Harris references hunger on universal credit (Keir Starmer needs a vision. ‘Buy British’ is not enough, 5 July), while others have called for more jobs.
But it could be more productive for Labour to mobilise the big social groupings: women, the eternal majority; young people, angry about the prevalence of bad working conditions; the new generation of accommodation-poor – stressed rough sleepers, long-term sofa surfers, insecure renters and nervous first-time buyers; and the growing mass of planet-lovers across the whole country, who perceive what are the greatest threats to life on earth. Here are the numbers for Labour, Keir – speak to them!
Dr Monica Threlfall
Global Policy Institute, London
• John Harris is right about Labour’s need to form a “vision” around values and policies, and to construct a bold, powerful narrative to promote it. Why not build something on the simple word “fairness”? It brings in social justice, economic equity, tolerance, access to education and opportunity, and we have the powerful British idea of “fair play” within it, for those who like a dash of patriotism with their political messages.
Heather Welford
Newcastle upon Tyne
• In John Harris’s article, one of the most important phrases is: “With the right rhetorical skill, there are lines to be drawn.” There is no shortage of issues for Labour to champion, but it is not enough to expound policy in a sober and measured way. Labour needs passionate orators who can use rhetoric to dramatise issues, such as the scandalous underfunding of local authorities, and arouse public emotion in support. Such people can capture headlines. Labour, where are they?
Mike Quigley
Cambridge
• John Harris is right that “Buy British” is not enough, but it is a start. The community wealth-building examples explored by the “Preston model” (examined by Matthew Brown and Rhian E Jones in Paint Your Town Red) promote a dynamic shift towards the preferment of more locally based initiatives over larger conglomerate involvement. Contracts within communities, rather than contracts for cronies, if applied across the country, could go some way to restoring a fairer and more demographically balanced economy.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
• If Labour would only promise to comply with the UN Women’s Convention, fill the gap left by the coalition government abolishing the Women’s National Commission, and prioritise the ignored gender issues that leave UK women and girls so “left behind”, millions of us (more than 50% of the population) would be voting for it. There is still time to attract our support.
Margaret Owen
President, Widows for Peace through Democracy
• The reason Labour can’t risk reminding the electorate that it runs most of England’s big cities is that for most city dwellers it is Labour local authorities that have been the direct agents of austerity. Shamefaced but slavish, they have been the transmission belts of Tory cuts to services and support for the most vulnerable, and they have done nothing to mobilise their own electorate in political opposition.
Mary Pimm and Nik Wood
London
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