In your coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s difficulties over antisemitism, you report the complaints of some of his supporters that the issue is being used as a stick to beat him with (“Leading Jewish donor ditches Labour over antisemitism”, News and elsewhere).
True to an extent, no doubt, but only because it is there to be used. I am certain that Corbyn is quite without an antisemitic thought in his head, but I am equally certain that the party has failed effectively to address the issue among its members and supporters. If you allow a big stick to be fashioned and left lying around, don’t be surprised if your enemies pick it up and beat you with it.
Meanwhile, as you report on your front page, it is left to a cross-party group of MPs and peers to oppose the government’s determination to leave the EU customs union (“Industry planning major jobs cull post-Brexit”). This is properly the function of the official opposition – the clue’s in the name – but they are too busy firefighting on their own patch.
And the leader of the opposition, as Helen Lewis points out, is not doing enough leading – on antisemitism, Brexit or anything else (“If Corbyn is not to appear a passenger in his own party, he must learn how to lead”, Comment).
John Filby
Ashover, Derbyshire
I agree with Helen Lewis when she says that Jeremy Corbyn sometimes appears to be a passenger in his own party. And I was not happy about the Facebook comment he made in 2012. But I support his agenda and, primarily, I want to see the defeat of the Tory government. It was apparent in 2015 that, by sticking to the status quo, other Labour leadership candidates were not interested in making society more egalitarian. Although I would prefer a centrist Labour government to a Tory one, I believe this country needs radical change. That is even more true now.
In my view, by omission Lewis implied that the hate mail received by Luciana Berger MP had something to do with Labour party members. But I understand that the neo-Nazi trolls responsible were prosecuted.
Lisa J Lisker
London E17
.
The milk of human kindness
If there is a cult of kindness, it isn’t out of the blue (What does the kindness fad say about us? Observer Magazine).
Thirty years as a primary school governor showed me that the overriding ethic that schools teach their children is to be kind and caring to one another. Even longer as a parish priest made clear that many ordinary people on your street and mine routinely reach out to neighbours in need in often modest and unassuming ways.
All the major world faiths believe “do as you would be done by” is the only way to live your life with integrity and hope.
David Eaton
Betchworth, Surrey
Make things, not profits
Will Hutton may or may not be right to characterise the Melrose takeover of GKN as but the latest victory of the asset-stripper in the battle to control British industry (“GKN will be stripped and sold by ghouls who have no interest in making things”, Comment). The wider point is that even among those who purport to be in the business of “making things”, the logic of the asset-stripper predominates. The firm – whether private or public sector – is too often seen as no more than an ensemble of innate assets or resources to be combined so as to maximise some kind of target return.
At the heart of modern business culture is modern economics – with its emphasis on allocation rather than production: on the sharing out of that which is already there, rather than the process of creating anew. Until we reimagine business as founded on ethos rather than the calculator, as on intrinsic rather than extrinsic reward, then whether or not firms are acquired for the ultimate purpose of break-up and sale, still the asset-stripper prevails.
William Dixon
City, University of London
London EC1
How to live well in cyberspace
At the heart of Evgeny Morozov’s compelling argument lies the statement that we “should combine data production with a proactive economic and democratic agenda that would seek to ensure citizens do not lose control over the precious resource (data) and infrastructure (artificial intelligence), around which most of political and economic institutions will be built” (“After the Facebook scandal, it’s time for a new agenda”, Focus).
Anyone interested in how this might be done should read Andrew Keen’s chapter on Estonia in his recently published How to Fix the Future. The Estonian Information System Authority is attempting to “redefine the nature of the country”. Its chief architect says: “In the old world, citizens were dependent on government; in Estonia, we are trying to make government dependent on citizens.” Trust and digital integrity are key. Keen writes: “Estonia matters. It offers a glimpse into how to live well in cyberspace.”
John Airs
Liverpool
BBC hits a new low
We should all be concerned by the picture painted by Henry Porter of a BBC that failed to fulfil its role during the EU referendum and continues to let us down, even as we trundle inexorably towards the Brexit cliff edge (“Is the BBC abdicating its responsibility over Brexit?” Comment).
He might have added to his litany of the broadcaster’s failures Carole Cadwalladr’s recent appearance on The Andrew Marr Show. I am not alone in believing this to have been a new low in the dubious behaviour of the national broadcaster in the Brexit debate. Who knows whether months of painstaking investigation will reveal a potentially massive electoral fraud extending to the heart of government? Yet all the BBC can do is “balance” Cadwalladr with the loudly voiced opinions of the hard Brexit apologist Isabel Oakeshott.
We live in worrying times, with the BBC seemingly driven by two critical factors that do not include the seemingly obvious need to subject the workings of government to inquisitive scrutiny. Rather, with one eye on its charter, there is a palpable fear of offending the shadowy rightwing forces that promote Brexit at all costs. And then there’s the slavish respect for the referendum result as though it were set in stone, like a general election. The question as to what “Brexit actually means” still remains unanswered after nearly two years.
Stan Abbott
Durham
Put plants on your plate
I am sure that many people will start thinking about what is on their dinner plate after the excellent article by Dan Hancox (“The unstoppable rise of veganism: how a fringe movement went mainstream”, New Review). I’ve been vegan for more than 30 years and my only regret is that I didn’t “get it” years earlier. I am so envious of those who have been vegan since birth in that they can glow in the knowledge that they have never (intentionally) harmed another. I had always called myself an animal “lover” while I was simultaneously stuffing their tortured and decaying corpses into my mouth.
Jayn Meinhardt
Cincinnati, Ohio
No fool like an old fool
Nice to see a story from your correspondent, Scherzo Primavera (“Brexit and Remain emojis condemned as ‘divisive and dangerous’”, News, last week). I knew his father, Grande Scherzo. He was a spaghetti tree farmer.
Rod Green
Colchester
