What can any government do, John Harris wonders, to counter extra-parliamentary mobilisation, through social media and on the streets, from the right (Robinson and Farage’s ‘civil war’ narrative is warping voters’ minds. How is any government supposed to counter it?, 14 September).
Your report of the nationalist rally in London the previous day estimated the numbers present at 110,000. As someone who attended the capital’s three largest demonstrations – against South African apartheid in 1985, against the Iraq war in 2003 (1.5 million), and for a second referendum on EU membership in 2019 (around 1 million) – I can testify that extra-parliamentary mobilisation on the left has always been far stronger.
Trouble is, Keir Starmer and his ministers have cut themselves off from such support by taking the opposite stance on every significant issue that sparks it. There is a vacancy for a progressive government that would confront present-day apartheid in Israel (and stop sending it weapons), start to disengage Britain from the project to prolong US primacy through constant wars, and point us unambiguously towards rejoining the EU sooner rather than later. It would draw strength from the principled, progressive majority in the country rather than constantly antagonising, betraying and disappointing it.
Jake Lynch
Associate professor, The University of Sydney
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