John Harris paints Glastonbury as a reflection of England’s liberal heart, but let’s not kid ourselves (At Glastonbury, I saw what England’s silent majority really looks like. Why aren’t politicians listening?, 13 July). Glastonbury might be progressive in spirit, but it’s also pricey, exclusive and overwhelmingly middle class.
Tickets sell out in minutes. Getting there costs a fortune. That’s not the everyday Britain most people live in. Yes, millions of people in this country care about fairness, climate and compassion. But many are too exhausted to believe politics will ever work for them. They’re not watching headline sets. They’re dealing with rent hikes and bills they can’t pay.
Glastonbury is a great vibe, but not the voice of the silent majority. To find that, the left needs to look somewhere less glamorous.
Paul Berry
Liverpool
• We need a Bob (as demonstrated by Band Aid and Live 8), someone who can harness the power of the silent, stifled majority; someone who would shout loud enough to be noticed, who would point out the divisive hatred and hypocrisy of Nigel Farage. Someone to talk sense and act sensibly on climate change, migration and child poverty in this country. Someone to give us hope.
We can, and did, vote for the Greens, Liberal Democrats and independents recently in the council elections, but by splitting the vote we allowed Reform in the back door. So where’s our Bob? We need you.
Sarah Kerry
Belper, Derbyshire
• John Harris seems to believe that people he met at Glastonbury are representative of a new England. No, John, they are representative of a self-selected group attending an overhyped music festival, and no more representative of England than members of the MCC at Lord’s.
Jonathan Harris
Poundon, Oxfordshire
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