John Harris raises some important issues in his article (Labour’s big relaunch won’t solve its biggest problem: this government doesn’t speak human, 1 December), but it’s crucial to dig deeper into the relationship between politics and emotion. Politicians like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage are not more “human” than those in the centre or on the left. They just know how to manipulate dark human emotions – fear, anger and resentment – in societies where there is profound inequality, very little taxation of the rich and barely regulated privatisation of all that makes civilised life possible – health services, education, water, energy and transport.
They particularly know how to manipulate resentment – the emotion that underlies fascism – when so many people struggle for survival as they watch the smug satisfaction of those who don’t.
Progressive politics in Britain has done little to stop the downward slide of an economy hollowed out by deindustrialisation, Brexit, austerity and obeisance to finance capital. If the centre or the left seriously connected with this reality, they would visibly feel the need to address the healing of this damage. If they left behind the deference and denial that characterises so much of British political life and urgently addressed these issues with passion – yes, with emotion – they would have massive support and this country could be saved from sliding into despair.
Sheila Duncan
London
• John Harris reminds us that only one in five of the electorate voted Labour in the general election. He could probably have added that many of those were voting “anything but Tory” rather than supporting the party that now enjoys a two-thirds majority in the Commons. Hence, it is not surprising that there are many complaints, and some are justified.
A competent chancellor should be able to understand the difficulties suffered by a family of four trying to budget with the income of just one earner on the national minimum wage. Will anyone over 50 see the completion of HS2? Does £3bn a year help Ukraine to defeat Russia? Is carbon capture really going to change global warming or is it merely kicking another can down the road?
We hear continually about all the people out of work because they are sick. Instead of trying to do a little bit of everything, and imagining Britain has huge influence in the world, the government would do best to focus on what matters to us – the cost of living, health and the education of our children. Show some imagination. Instead of axing the winter fuel allowance, for example, raise the income tax threshold by the same amount and make it taxable for all the fabled millionaire pensioners. Recognise that being on an NHS waiting list is unhealthy in itself. And please recognise that if we fail to educate our youngsters, we won’t have a workforce in 10 years’ time.
David Diprose
Thame, Oxfordshire
• I would advise Keir Starmer and his team to look back to ancient Greece and see that Aristotle had this all worked out over 2,000 years ago as the “rhetorical triangle”. The three essential elements of good persuasive communication are 1) Ethos: an appeal to credibility and authority; 2) Logos: an appeal to facts and reasoning; 3) pathos: an appeal to people’s emotions. All three are equally important. The reliance on too much logos and not enough pathos is clearly a problem.
Maureen Tilford
London
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