Regarding your article (A word to the wise, Keir Starmer: whoever advised you to praise Thatcher got it wrong, 4 December), Keir Starmer, as I understand it, was using Thatcher as an example of a prime minister who was effective and governed according to identifiable principles, which is certainly a major contrast with the last 13 years. Starmer was obviously hoping that we would believe he also would be effective, but with different principles. It’s rather like saying Michael Gove was effective as education secretary. In both cases, the effectiveness greatly increased the damage they caused.
However, Starmer should have known that he would be widely misunderstood, so it was a tin-eared thing to say. He is right in that one of the most salient characteristics of the current Tory government is ineffectiveness, and in particular a complete failure to plan for any future. There’s a constant drizzle of horrendous examples – a stubborn refusal to tackle climate change, failure to provide services for postnatal mental health difficulties, with huge potential damage to the next generation, and failure to tackle obesity.
It seems that the Tories, who normally call on a much smaller talent pool than Labour because they draw from a tiny proportion of the population, are even more incompetent than usual because of the purge of one-nation (almost sane) members under Boris Johnson. Labour ought to do better, but this will only happen if the talent is matched by inspired leadership, something that is still open to doubt.
Jeremy Cushing
Wiveliscombe, Somerset
• Margaret Thatcher’s main legacy is not greater “entrepreneurialism”, as Keir Starmer suggests (Keir Starmer: Labour ‘won’t turn on spending taps’ if it wins election, 3 December) but simply greater inequality: surely not something for a Labour leader to admire.
Water, buses, care homes and much else were sold off on poor terms and with insufficient controls. Unions’ ability to defend their members’ wages was curtailed, contributing to the flatlining seen since 2010. This all helped the rich get richer; it did nothing for new entrepreneurs.
Perhaps Thatcher’s worst legacy was the sale of millions of council houses – a publicly owned asset that provided low-rent housing for 35% of the population in the late 1970s. The number of homes privately rented in Britain has tripled since 1979. Rents are at levels that give tenants little chance to save to start a small business or buy a home. Opportunities for rich opportunists perhaps. But hardly helpful for entrepreneurs. Irresponsible Thatcherism is not a direction in which Labour should be heading.
Stephen Bendle
Weymouth, Dorset
• Keir Starmer has now clarified that a change of personnel in government from Conservative to Labour will have little impact on the pressing concerns facing voters – increasing hospital waiting lists, crumbling schools, squalid housing, limited access to public transport, lack of social care provision, bankrupt local authorities, and the rising cost of even the basic requirements of daily living.
Starmer needs to put aside his admiration for Margaret Thatcher and follow the path of Clement Attlee’s post-war Labour government, which achieved a huge level of reconstruction and social reform. As leader of the Labour party, he should feel compelled to hold on to Labour’s history and values, embark on a process that introduces a fairer distribution of wealth, and thereby fund the heavy investment needed to reconstruct and repair broken Britain. Only then will he be offering a compelling reason to vote for a Labour government.
Peter Riddle
Wirksworth, Derbyshire
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