How Labour can avoid marching into oblivion

Polly Toynbee is wrong (Labour’s chance will come when Johnson’s bogus promises start to crumble, 10 May), Labour will never win an election by yapping at Boris Johnson’s heels and shouting foul, while allowing him to set the agenda. Platitudes like “accelerating the process of change” and “needing to reconnect with the electorate” will not do it either. Labour wins elections only when it is perceived to have a vision.

Last year, the woefully inadequate responses to Covid-19 highlighted the myriad problems thrown up by the longstanding attachment to a neoliberal agenda and austerity: the privatisation and outsourcing that is steadily debilitating public services, the inability to face up to the social care crisis, the running down of infrastructure, the obsession with short-term financial gain, the monstrous inequality that this has produced, and so on. Add to this green energy, green jobs and a properly targeted investment policy, and you have the basis of a new pact with the British public.

There is a golden opportunity to reignite public discussion, and it should not be allowed to slip by. Once the vision is in place, concrete policies will follow. The party has a stark choice: to rekindle its erstwhile passion, fire and commitment around a radical programme, or march into oblivion.
Prof Peter Coss
Malvern, Worcestershire

Angela Rayner speaks of Labour needing to “reconnect with the voters that we need to win, especially in our traditional heartlands, and show that the Labour party speaks for the working class” (Report, 9 May).

The first thing Labour should do is to drop the term “working class”, which harks back to a time of class division, of people knowing their place in the structure of society, that the public no longer recognise, or at least no longer wish to associate themselves with. What Labour consistently fails to grasp is that people do not wish to be pigeonholed as victims and deserving of sympathy.

They might see themselves as under-rewarded and undervalued, but they are still aspirational and respond far more positively to hope and optimism than to pity, which is why Boris Johnson has gained so much of their support. You do not win back the support of those who have given the Tories their vote by repeatedly implying that in doing so they were misguided or duped, in effect questioning their intelligence.

Labour needs to abandon the politics of them and us, stop telling the electorate how much they should hate the Conservatives, and find a way to articulate its vision of a better society.
Jon Culley
Castle Donington, Leicestershire

Of all the letters about the current political scene, the one that caught my eye was from the youngest contributor, Joseph Walker – the 14-year-old activist from Bath. I am at the other end of the spectrum as an 86-year-old, active in politics for 65 years. From the beginning, as a Liberal I always believed the Labour party was our rival, but the Tory party was the enemy.

Polly Toynbee writes: “There is one necessity: Labour must start work now on a progressive alliance that openly embraces ideas from outside with proportional representation to prove it is no longer trapped in a self-defeating tribalism.” I am unlikely to live to see it, but predict that Joseph Walker has a great future.
Stephen Jakobi
Richmond, London

Well done, Joseph Walker. Sadly, I have to tell you not to hold your breath while you wait for Keir Starmer to extend the hand of friendship. Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green councillors up and down the country know that there is barely a fag paper between our thoughts and aspirations for our communities. But after more than 20 years campaigning and winning elections for Labour and knowing that we could win more seats, I know that the suggestion of collaborative working will always be met with a resounding shout from above that “we don’t do deals”. Unless and until we get over that we will continue to struggle under the Tories.
Kate Wheller
Former Labour councillor, now independent, Wyke Regis, Dorset

Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.