I can assure Rosie Fletcher that it is not just the young who are supporting Jeremy Corbyn (“As a young Labour voter passionate for Corbyn, please don’t patronise me”, Comment).
I am 70 and am sick of politicians who have no policies, but simply use focus groups to garner votes. Their political theory is you can ignore youngsters because they don’t vote, while pensioners must be protected, as they vote in huge numbers.
With both the Tories and New Labour adopting the same policies it is not surprising that young people feel disenfranchised.
We are told by those opposing Corbyn that he would drag us back to the 1970s. Well, in that era, we young people got an extremely good deal. If you graduated from university or were professionally qualified you found yourself debt-free and you were guaranteed a very good job; houses cost three or four times your gross salary. Now, graduates leave with debts of £40,000 and many cannot find a decent job; houses now cost 12 times a good salary.
In the 1970s, if you were poor, you could rent a council house and feed your children; now, you have to pay extortionate private rents and utilise food banks.
Electricity and gas prices were kept in line with wages; now, privatised prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation year after year. Likewise, privatised rail travel has become expensive and yet the subsidy paid by taxpayers has tripled. And services are worse; it now takes longer to get from London to Leeds (for example) than it did 30 years ago.
So young people should welcome Corbyn taking us back to the 1970s, which is a lot more appetising than the Tory objective of taking us back to Victorian times. If the Tories do not face a viable opposition we could be heading for the return of the workhouse and debtor prisons.
Malcolm Howard
Banstead, Surrey
The choice facing the electorate at the next election will be a stark one according to Rosie Fletcher’s penetrating analysis of the Labour party’s recent woes and future prospects. She rightly sees the reason for Labour’s debacle in the last election as stemming from their failure to communicate a simple, appealing and directional economic vision.
This is in contrast to other parties, especially the winning Tory pitch of “Like austerity? Vote Tory”, which, according to Fletcher, means the next election will be fought over “the biting effects that Conservative austerity will have over the next four years”. With Corbyn as leader she argues that Labour will not repeat the mistakes of 2015, going to the country instead with a coherent programme that would be “markedly different from anything else offered” based on growth and hope rather than austerity. Given her analysis, it would appear that the nature of the decision facing the electorate will be an epic one.
Mick Beeby
Bristol
I normally avoid patronising young people, but after reading Rosie Fletcher I am inclined to make an exception.
Unfortunately, I remember 18 years of Tory rule, when Labour achieved nothing. After another 18 years of Tory rule, I might be too old to care, but I guess Rosie Fletcher wouldn’t be. Like her, I broadly welcome Jeremy Corbyn’s vision, but is it really credible that he can win the next general election?
It’s a huge risk. Being electable in Islington no more guarantees national electability than it does in Blaenau Gwent. Consequently, I support Andy Burnham, even though he would not deliver everything I would like. So now to be really patronising – I’m old enough to remember the Rolling Stones number You Can’t Always Get What You Want!
Richard Hassall
Leeds
