I read Nesrine Malik’s article (For the Tory party, Boris Johnson is a blip not a crisis, 17 January) and I sincerely hope that she turns out to be wrong for all our sakes, because so many in this country cannot afford yet another Tory government. I hear Neil Kinnock’s warning “not to be young, not to fall ill, not to grow old”, on a continuous loop in my head at the moment.
Surely, I keep telling myself, when people witness first-hand the irreparable damage done to the NHS and the care sector, they will not vote the Conservatives in again. Surely people will realise that the Tories’ laissez-faire attitude to market forces dictating the way our public utilities are run, and the bleak prospect of inflation creating a perfect storm for millions, is not the way forward.
I fear that many want some kind of return to their rose-tinted memories of the Thatcher years. Having grown up in the Thatcher years on the outskirts of Manchester, that thought petrifies me. Because those years are ingrained in my memory – when it was made painfully clear that if you didn’t have money, your value as a person was minimal. Do we really wish that on our children and grandchildren, for them to feel that unless they earn a good living they are a burden on society? If that is what people believe would improve our lot, they are sorely mistaken.
Sue Hardman
Woodbridge, Suffolk
• Nesrine Malik is spot-on regarding Boris Johnson’s position vis-a-vis new Tory voters in the “red wall” constituencies. It reminds me of Prof Stuart Hall’s commentary on how Margaret Thatcher constructed a new ultra-rightwing hegemonic consensus, supported by most of the national press, which began the dismantling of the Keynesian “mixed economy”, and replaced it with market fundamentalism, outsourcing, privatisation and the financial deregulation that has wrecked our society and culminated in the catastrophes of austerity and Brexit.
Thatcher managed to capture older and working-class voters with the discounted sale of council houses and the slashing of social security for those deemed undeserving. Boris Johnson’s perceived strength with early vaccination, culture war policies and Brexit has maintained his popularity among new Tory voters, despite the long list of his lethal pandemic failures, mendacity and abuse of public office.
Labour ought to be 20 points in front. Keir Starmer has got no room for complacency and needs to craft a pro-European, vote-reforming, green alliance with centre-left parties to finally end Conservative electoral dictatorships and Britain’s decades-long rightwing folly.
Philip Wood
Kidlington, Oxfordshire
• I smiled at Nesrine Malik’s reference to people’s perception of Boris Johnson as a pantomime villain. He grasps the electorate’s attention and media headlines by dint of his incompetent, crass and inept behaviour. Meanwhile, his government introduces legislation that attacks the very tenets of our democracy – restricting the right to protest, curtailing the effectiveness and independence of the country’s major broadcaster, increasing the privatisation of the NHS, restricting our right to vote and so much more.
Let’s not get distracted by Johnson’s pantomime behaviour. Let’s keep our focus on the real threats to our future democracy, because these threats will endure whether or not Johnson remains.
Peter Riddle
Wirksworth, Derbyshire
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