Jeremy Corbyn’s great, if not only, strength lies in his authenticity. It is why he won the Labour leadership against the desiccated calculations of his opponents. He needs to keep speaking from the heart, showing what fires him up. We should then have an idea of how and in whose interests he would govern, rather than a set of empty policy promises. He should never get into policy mud-wrestling, mainly because he’s no good at it but also because the Tories are really good at producing some besuited, entitled nonentity ready to savage any Labour spending pledge as unaffordable. From Corbyn’s perspective, to paraphrase Theresa May, no policy is better than any policy. So, as Simon Jenkins (Opinion, 4 May) says, Corbyn should go for broke and play to his strengths. He still probably won’t win, but he may well stop a Tory landslide and show a way out of the bloodless politics of today.
There is more to governing than accountancy can ever conceive of. There is hope that things can get better, fairer, more decent, and less cynical, manipulative and trivial, arguing over the deckchairs as the ship sinks. The Tories are always ready to get into the gutter to win power. Corbyn needs to present an inspirational alternative to May’s opportunistic hypocrisy – and soon.
Roy Boffy
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
• Simon Jenkins urges Jeremy Corbyn to follow Bernie Sanders’ example and unflinchingly embrace traditional leftwing values of fairness and redistribution. But the same approach during the Foot/Kinnock era locked Labour out of power for nearly two decades. Tony Blair “got real” and recognised that the English (if not the rest of Britain) would never, ever, vote for that agenda. He devised a “third way” and won office. Despite the cardinal error of backing Bush against Iraq, he also transformed the nation from its 1990s backward-looking mindset. What is wrong with Corbynism is not its worthy, sensible policies. It is simply that general elections are about votes. The English (having awarded themselves Brexit) are not going to wake on 8 June transformed into rational beings.
Paul Cairns
Halifax, West Yorkshire
• Well done, Giles Fraser (Loose canon, 5 May), for a cogent description of the uncoupling of liberalism from its historic postwar shared purpose with democratic socialism. Liberalism has become detached from the idea of a shared society. Celebrity-chasing politicians partying with billionaires from Blair through Clinton to Obama have left us bemused as to their political compass and values. The adoption of neoliberal doctrine is the causal poison.
Byron Ashton
Hengoed, Caerphilly
• I was puzzled when John Grace (Sketch, 24 April) described Jeremy Corbyn’s performance on the Andrew Marr Show as “zen-like”. Then, when I listened to Corbyn’s superb Whitechapel speech, I got it. Corbyn said: “Whereas insecure leaders want to feel stronger by asking you to give them more power, I recognise strong leadership as equipping you with more power.” And here’s Lao Tzu, sometimes regarded as “the father of Zen” writing some 2,500 years ago: “Why is the sea king of a hundred streams? Because it lies below them. If the sage would guide the people, he must serve with humility. If he would lead them, he must follow behind.”
Sounds a lot more promising than Theresa May’s ominous threat of “strong, stable leadership”.
Pete Winstanley
Durham
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