It does not need a committee to determine the reasons for Labour’s election defeat: a divided party, an unpopular leader too sympathetic to leftwing autocrats, dithering over Brexit, failure to deal with the charge of antisemitism, an ill-thought-out manifesto. The list goes on (“Defeated MPs call for ‘unflinching’ Labour review”, News).
The need is for action and I fear diagnosis will be a comforting substitute for doing something. Doing something will be up to the next leader. He or she must be personable, intelligent, articulate, diligent, pragmatic and a master of detail. Their primary job will be to oppose a populist government. Labour needs to develop plans to deal with the perennial problems: housing, transport, the NHS, care for the old, drugs. Then there are more recent and more intractable problems: climate crisis, automation, globalisation, fake news and internet intrusion.
The choice of leader will determine the future of Labour and, indeed, whether it has a future. It is not just Labour that is at risk but democracy. The members of the party must get this right.
Philip Symmons
Gillingham, Dorset
After much thought, I have decided to join the Labour party so that I can cast a vote in the election of a new leader. I read that Barbara Ellen is considering doing the same (“Should I rejoin Labour to vote for a new leader? Tricky...”, Comment). Don’t hesitate, Barbara.
Indeed, why doesn’t the Observer, which has printed much excellent commentary on the lamentable state of the party under Jeremy Corbyn, mount a campaign to encourage all who believe in the need for a moderate leader to do likewise? The party needs an influx of new members to help bring this about.
Claire Coxhead
Basildon, Essex
Michael Savage’s piece on the four ex-Tories who paid the electoral price for opposing Brexit only goes part of the way, (“Out but not down: Tory anti-Brexiters tell where the next battle will be fought”, News). The MPs from both major parties who took a stand on principle should all be recognised. Their enforced exit from the Commons is a sharp commentary on the state of British politics and the inadequacy of its electoral system. Whether or not one agrees with their politics, there needs to be some way of keeping these brave MPs in politics.
At a time when intellectual rigour is in desperately short supply across the political spectrum, they represented an important corner of political depth and bravery. They must not be lost to politics.
Michael Meadowcroft
Leeds
The damage prisons do
What is the matter with our nation over prisoners and their treatment? (“Prisons chaos fuels massive legal bill as violence surges”, News.) Throughout the lives of one unheeding government after another, the consensus of those steeped in experience and knowledge has been disregarded to our grave cost. Too often, the focus has been on reinforcing the long-disproved premise that prison works, rather than reserving that costly last resort for those relatively few offenders where public safety demands it. On 20 July 1910, then home secretary Winston Churchill clearsightedly spoke of the need for “a constant heart-searching” and an “eagerness to rehabilitate” representing the “mark and measure... and virtue of a nation”.
Practitioners confronting these realities daily have long recognised that early, measured and skilled non-custodial interventions are the more effective strategy rather than over-reliance on an incarceration likely to result in a more deeply ingrained criminality on release. The longer we fail to act on this truism the greater the societal and economic damage.
Malcolm Fowler
Solicitor and higher court advocate (retired)
Kings Heath, Birmingham
Profit conflicts with care
Among the social chaos that once was public services the most scandalous is the neglect of children. Sonia Sodha rightly draws attention to the government’s disgraceful complicity in outsourcing its responsibility for the care of vulnerable youngsters to privatised children’s homes (“How did children’s homes become centres of profit-making and abuse?”, Comment).
At one time, local authorities, under democratic control, provided and ran children’s care homes. There is no justification for, or such a thing as, modest “profit-making” out of vulnerable people, be it children in care, the elderly or prisoners. The responsibility for caring and providing for the vulnerable is a moral imperative that lies with all of us in the form of the state. Commerce and markets are not interested in care, which involves the exercise of values, kindness integrity, justice, safeguarding and the professional capabilities and development of staff. Commerce is only interested in the minimum at the greatest profit.
Dr Robin C Richmond
Bromyard, Herefordshire
Fewer flights, not fewer fliers
With reference to “flight-shame”, Rowan Moore writes: “One person’s return flight from London to Edinburgh generates more carbon emissions than an average Somalian or Ugandan produces in a whole year” (“The airport as a flight of fantasy”, The New Review).
Targeting passengers misses the point. The factors determining the carbon footprint of a flight include the weight of the aircraft, fuel, contents of the hold and the passengers. To achieve a significant reduction in carbon emissions, we need fewer flights rather than fewer people on each flight.
Clive Coen
Professor of neuroscience, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
King’s College London
Veganism not so green
Does the moral case for veganism consider the wellbeing of the smallest, most crucial, life forms in our food production systems? (“The man who could make history in a crucial case for ethical vegans”, News)
The synergy between livestock and crop production farming fosters biologically rich, fertile soils through grazing and application of farmyard manure and reduces the need for agrichemicals on croplands.
Globally, soils have been depleted of organic matter, biological life and carbon stores by intensive, agrichemical-dependent agriculture. Much plant-based food is produced this way: grains, pulses, plant oils, nuts, fruit and vegetables. Many of the key vegan sources of protein, fats and oils are unsuitable for UK production and imports significantly increased in Veganuary last year. By choosing food produced close to home to high environmental and ethical standards, and high animal welfare standards, we can make a difference. Healthy soils that store carbon and support biodiversity are vital. Specific dietary exclusions may not be the answer.
Rosalind Edwards
Freshford, Bath
A series offender
Although I can just about forgive Euan Ferguson (Television, The New Review) because at least he mentions Spiral (the most consistently brilliant cop series ever), he is nevertheless at least two fine series short of a full review. Where on earth is Pose (bold, beautiful, brilliant) and Giri/Haji (the most stunningly different cop drama to grace the small screen)?
Bryan Ratcliff
Worcester
