Regarding George Monbiot’s article (Here’s what you need to know about Starmer’s illiberal protest curbs: they would have killed the Labour party at birth, 13 October), in 2023, GroenLinks (Greens) and PvdA (Labour) in the Netherlands decided to form a political alliance, unifying the centre-left. Together, they planned to tackle the housing crisis and the cost of living crisis, and to invest in the green economy. This merger didn’t happen because PvdA made a sudden left turn into radicalism. It didn’t happen because GroenLinks diluted its principles to improve its chances of forming a government. It happened because these two parties realised that the climate crisis and the cost of living crisis go hand in hand and cannot be left to the mercy of the centre-right VVD (Conservatives) or extreme-right PVV (Freedom party), which led the country through two years of utter chaos and infighting.
If Labour wants to revive its chances of being in government after 2029, it better take notice. Rather than mimicking Reform UK and the Conservatives on Brexit, on banning our rights to protest (I wonder how this Labour government would have responded to Orgreave), not to mention the quiet dissolution of green investments, Labour should retrieve its social-democrat principles.
Labour has a choice. Either it reconnects with its ideology of solidarity and compassion, or it continues trying to be this bleak copy of Reform, proving Zack Polanski right when he said that Labour is on course to “hand this country on a plate” to Reform and that therefore the Greens are here to give a voice to those who believe that “politics can be honest, fair and hopeful again”. He said the Greens were not here to be disappointed with Labour, but to replace it and fill the ideological void this Labour party has created.
Dear Keir Starmer, your heart sits on the left. Is it still beating?
Dr Wouter Servaas
Sheffield
