I agree with Will Hutton that the essence of socialism is fellowship, and it’s easy to show what that can mean in practice (“Socialism isn’t a dirty word. It’s simply about wanting to make a fairer society”). The NHS is essentially a system of mutual medical aid with state funding, paid for by income tax – the more you earn, the more you contribute – which means it is firmly rooted in the socialist principle “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. It has been the most popular institution in the country for almost 80 years. People may complain about its performance (largely caused by Tory attempts to dismantle it), but how many of them criticise it for being socialist?
I’d like Labour politicians to pledge to apply the principles of the NHS to other state bodies. And if the Tories and the rightwing press scream that this is socialism, Labour should ask people how bad the socialism of the NHS has been for them.
Charles Osborne
Prague, Czech Republic
Will Hutton could have summed this up by quoting the great Liverpool FC manager of the 1960s, Bill Shankly, who said: “The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It’s the way I see football, the way I see life.” It certainly accords with my view of life and politics, as the more unequal a society is, the less healthy it is. Maybe Keir Starmer, even as an Arsenal fan, should adopt Shankly’s view.
Dr Stephen Battersby
Surbiton, London
The price of entertainment
Tomiwa Owolade is missing some points in his piece about cinema and theatre ticket prices (“Who can afford the expensive gamble of going to see a play that you might not like?”). The £20 ticket is all about the “luxury” experience – better seat, service, etc. Someone must pay for those extras, and the customer has a choice: £10 for the basic; £20 for the better. Theatre prices are the same. Putting on a West End play is expensive – not just actors but all the staff, maintenance, fixtures and fittings; not just the performance, either – rehearsals are required. In addition, unlike a film, the total audience exposure is limited. Therefore, the ability to recoup costs is equally limited.
Chris Parr
Putley, Herefordshire
Don’t bury Ed in the sand
I’m gobsmacked. Having just read Andrew Rawnsley’s positive article on Ed Davey having to perform silly stunts to get any media coverage for the Lib Dems (“You can laugh all you like at Ed Davey’s antics if they restore the Lib Dems’ clout”), I was stunned that the Observer editorial on the social care crisis makes no mention of the Lib Dems at all (“Whoever wins, the social care crisis needs to be addressed urgently”). It says: “There is one pressing issue affecting millions of people that has been conspicuous in its absence from the general election campaign so far”, ignoring the fact that Davey has sometimes been criticised for going on about social care almost to the exclusion of everything else.
Jane Dards
Caersws, Powys
Make all schools meritocratic
Catherine Bennett is right to call out the rightwing media (“Must we pity put-upon parents sacrificing all to send their offspring to private school?”). However, I fear that she has overlooked the main purpose of that parental “sacrifice”. It is not to achieve, as is so often claimed, the best possible education for their children (which can readily be achieved at much lesser expense through the state system, augmented by tutors and after-school activities) but is, instead, to buy them access to privilege, elite networks, top university places, the professions, power and wealth. As a consequence of this money-led selection system, the public schools have been able to foist on to the nation the litany of egotistical “mediocracies” that have governed us over the last 14 years.
I would prefer it if Labour, rather than tinkering at the edges, had the courage to tackle head-on this systematic corruption of our society and bring the public schools into the state system. My hope would be that, irrespective of parental background and ability to pay, all school places would then be given on a strictly meritocratic basis.
Mike Brown
Essendon, Hatfield, Hertfordshire
VAR: what is it good for?
Jonathan Wilson’s detailed analysis of VAR’s unintended negative consequences accurately identifies what has been lost for those football fans attending matches, (“Bad vibes and VAR: waiting game leaves fans frustrated over marginal calls”). This may be the case in the Premier League but not in the Championship, which functions perfectly well without VAR and so provides the most convincing argument against its continued use.
Mick Beeby
Bristol
Easy target. Wrong target
You can’t help but agree with Martha Gill (“Filthy lucre is everywhere, but book festivals are an easy target for protesters’ fury”). Protesters gluing themselves to roads rather than petrol station forecourts; trying to stop cars and motorbikes rather than chaining themselves to cruise ships and private jets. And let’s not forget the ones who attacked art works. Why?
Not only are they letting true villains get away scot-free, they don’t seem to realise they are alienating large groups of people who might even support them if their protests were less haywire and more targeted. And so another fairly blameless and easy target – book festivals – will now be affected disproportionately by some idealised, misdirected version of climate protest.
Dave Howard
Hove, East Sussex
Degenerative Toryism?
In “Now he thinks he’s lost, Sunak’s full of big ideas”, David Mitchell said: “The received wisdom is that people get more rightwing as they get older.” He could be recalling this letter published in the Guardian in 1970:
“Sir, young radicals, and indeed all those who would disagree with current government thought, are often assured that they will think differently when they are older. The implication is that radical thought is a normal, if immature, stage of development which is superseded well before middle age by good, healthy Toryism.
“Now it is clear that the average man over the age of 25 loses one million or more irreplaceable cells a day from the grey matter of his brain… I think we must seriously consider the possibility that Toryism, like osteoarthritis, is a degenerative disease. WF Jackson”
I keep a copy of this in my wallet.
Tony Meacock
Norwich
