A new New Labour? Is that really the limit of Keir Starmer’s ambition (‘Clause IV on steroids’: Keir Starmer says his Labour must go further than Blair, 12 May)? And what he said in his speech makes me think he’s talking about a new small-c conservative party.
The fact that Britain had a massive financial crisis at the end of 13 years of the Blair/Brown governments shows how little was changed. Almost none of the major stupidities of Thatcher’s policies, such as the deregulation of the financial sector which led to that disaster, was changed. They didn’t even stop the sale of council houses, so over a third of those sold are now in the hands of private landlords. A wasted decade.
And New Labour’s repeal of clause IV simply paved the way for the sell-off of vital resources, so we are now facing disastrous price rises, made even more disgusting by the fact that many of our energy firms, rail providers, water companies and bus services are in the hands of foreign equivalents of our previous nationally owned suppliers. And, as usual, not even a mention of that more recent Tory stupidity: Brexit. I suppose it’s a step forward for Starmer to recognise the scale of the disaster facing the country, but pussyfooting words and feeble promises won’t even begin to address the changes needed. I despair.
David Reed
London
• Keir Starmer’s promises to reform public services lag behind public opinion, and while he hesitates, the public is increasingly desperate for change. His caution is often attributed to “private polling”, while in the real world electors who have never supported public ownership call for someone to get a grip on the water industry.
Such anger is driven by long-running failures by water companies that still distribute excess profits to shareholders. Privatised rail franchises are more unpopular than the publicly owned services they replaced. And the energy market is fragile, with public money being used to stabilise prices for consumers and protect companies from collapsing.
Labour knows that it is benefiting from widespread anger at Tory incompetence, so why not be bold in testing the depth of that dissatisfaction by inviting people to support bolder thinking. It’s clear that dissenting Tory MPs have confidence in their answers (Tories demanding grassroots voice deny being a ‘Johnson revivalist group’, 12 May), continuing to believe in a Brexit that has predictably underperformed, and determined to reinstate an ex-leader whose boldness was only outstripped by the scale of his lies.
Les Bright
Exeter
• Keir Starmer is right to consider allowing EU citizens to vote in general elections in the UK (Report, 15 May). But this idea should go further. I am a British citizen resident in Spain, and, having lived here for a lot more than 15 years (the limit for voting imposed on a person with no UK address), cannot vote in UK general elections. Nor, post-Brexit, can I vote (except in municipal elections) in Spain.
Starmer could open the debate about how to ensure that people from the UK and EU whose country of residency does not coincide with their citizenship could receive fair representation – for example, by letting them choose where to vote based on nationality or residency. This would make an important statement about the desire of a future British government to work constructively with the EU.
Dr Howard B Broughton
Madrid, Spain
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
