Those perplexed by the Euroscepticism of sections of Labour’s usually internationalist left, against the majority views of party members (Corbyn avoids single market row as motion fails to make the cut, 25 September) should trace some of its roots in the 1980s. Tony Benn had developed an important overall critique of Britain’s unwritten constitution based on the notion of popular sovereignty “loaned” by the people to parliament. This strong focus prevented him from imagining a European version of this concept. He wrongly predicted that “once you have elected members of a European parliament … then the House of Commons becomes an inferior assembly” (“Diaries”, 15 November 1974). He advocated rebuilding the UK economy “behind a wall of protection” (6 November 1975), including direct import controls – arguably still feasible back then but incapable of meeting today’s global economic challenges. Benn believed “we should build on national interests” (19 September 1975), excluding the prospect of Europe-wide leftwing campaigns to change EU policies. But today effective forms of public ownership of economic assets, even within existing EU laws, and new rights for insecure workers, can indeed be devised and should be actively pursued across Europe.
John Chowcat
Hythe, Kent
• While Brexit may indeed be Labour’s achilles heel (Editorial, 25 September), a far greater threat lies in the growing intolerance of alternative views within the party. There is a delicious irony in Jon Lansman’s criticism of the authoritarian model of New Labour, preferring instead the authoritarianism of Old Labour stitching up the agenda and denying a debate on the most pressing political issue of our times. But then, irony was never a strong suit of the left.
Much more serious are the threats to debate culminating in the disgrace of the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, apparently requiring extra protection at the Labour conference this year. The implication of such intolerance is the destruction of Labour as a broad-based democratic party and its substitution by a cult. Open debate and freedom of expression are the hallmarks of a healthy society, not suppression of those with whom you disagree.
Roy Boffy
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
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