Liverpool was damaged not by Derek Hatton (The return of King Rat Derek Hatton is a new low for Labour, 20 February), but by the Thatcher government’s politically motivated attack on the public services. Hatton was the deputy leader of one of only two councils that made a stand against these cuts. The fact that Liverpool council stood virtually alone in resisting Thatcher is also an indictment of the national leadership of the Labour party of the period. Neil Kinnock bears responsibility for failing to support Labour councils in defending their communities, just as he also failed to support the miners in 1984-85. As a Labour party member of over 40 years, I am confident that our current leader would not disown members of the Labour movement engaged in similar struggles.
John Lynch
Bramham, West Yorkshire
• This week the political clocks turned back three decades, with Derek Hatton rejoining Labour, and Chuka Umunna, Ann Coffey et al leaving. In the 1980s, as a trade union officer and party activist, I saw on the ground the behaviour of the Militant Tendency and came to the view that it had no place in democratic politics. At the time the union movement helped to support Neil Kinnock in rescuing the party from oblivion, and change was driven forward by subsequent leaders, making Labour electable.
We are now back to the 80s and disillusionment is setting in. Labour should be at least 10 points ahead in the polls; we are not. We should be growing as a party; we are not. We have no cohesive strategy to deal with the biggest issues facing the country.
John McDonnell is right: we need a “mammoth listening exercise”. But the leadership needs to do more than just listen – we need action to recover the party from the current mess. Sadly, I see no sign of that happening.
Andrew Miller
Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston 1992-2015, and former official of ASTMS, then MSF 1977-1992
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