My sympathies to Neal Lawson (After 44 years, Labour moves to expel me. And my MP and activist friends are asking: who will be next?, 30 June). He is passionate in his beliefs and has worked long and hard to drag the Labour party into the 21st century. If he is correct in his analysis, it demonstrates the fatal flaw in party politics. It is all about winning, not about principle, country or people. In the interests of winning, any behaviour is justifiable. Neal laments the apparent end of a “broad church” Labour party. Sadly, there can be no such thing in the UK’s polarising political climate.
Political parties are a 20th-century construct and no longer fit for purpose. Only a politics of principle and consensus can meet the challenges of this era. I’ve been a political activist since the 1980s – first with the Green party and then, since 1991, outside the party system. Civil society is where the solution lies. We need a national conversation about what kind of country we want to be, and to remind the politicians that they work for us. And we pay their wages.
Lyn A Dade
Twickenham, London
• I read Neal Lawson’s article with sadness, and too much recognition. I’m a natural Labour voter, but to the right of Mr Lawson. Nevertheless, much of what he said rings true. I despise “Stevenage woman”, the latest target voter for the party. I agree with her on nothing, yet I have to accept that wooing this archetype is Labour’s path to power. It sickens me.
Still, I have the bold green reworking of the economy to look forward to, as well as rooting the Tory cronies out of the House of Lords. What – I don’t, any more? What else can I believe in that won’t be conveniently ditched the moment it starts to look even slightly hard? Why can’t the prospect of voting Labour feel like doing the right thing, rather than merely avoiding doing wrong?
Mr Lawson’s right in that Labour is holding our votes hostage against the return of this appalling Tory government. It’s getting harder to ignore the little voice that says: “If we’re going to have Tories, we might as well have the real thing.”
The good news for Keir Starmer is that I live in a safe Tory seat anyway, so my vote is essentially worthless. This is another state of affairs that Labour seems content with, against the overwhelming views of its membership. Sure, it would be great to dump the Tories. But it would be so much better if we could really believe that we are transforming the country for the better.
Michael Gwilt
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
• I rejoined the Labour party after the Jeremy Corbyn debacle, thinking it had rejected extremism, and was now a party whose main aim was to depose rightwing Tory domination and prevent its return. However, now my membership of the Labour party is once again in doubt.
I am deeply disappointed to find that Keir Starmer is allowing Labour strategists to think total Labour domination and the retention of the current voting system will achieve this aim (Labour strategists won’t flinch at being called control freaks, 30 June). Voters have already shown their support for a more flexible proportional representation system by voting tactically. This needs encouragement and support.
Labour may win the next election using the current first past the post system, but their re-election in subsequent terms is less certain. In the long term, they should move to a fairer voting system, and they should be encouraging a diverse leftwing majority in parliament.
Deborah Wilkinson
Leasgill, Cumbria
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