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5 hours ago
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The plans set out by Larry Elliott certainly suggest a way forward for the Starmer government (If Keir Starmer is ousted, Labour could still win the next election. Here’s how that would work, 19 February). But politics and political approval also involve a balance sheet in which there has to be some recognition of the negative ways in which support had been lost. For many liberals, “old” Labour voters and sections of the left, Keir Starmer lost credibility on three issues: the relatively trivial one of “freebies”, and the much more substantive ones of benefit cuts for the most vulnerable and policies concerning Gaza.
All the political choices taken in these contexts ignored values and ideals with long histories, not least of democratic commitment to the mitigation of the abuse of power and the needs of the most powerless. Policies about various locations for domestic investment might be welcome, but the question remains of how to define policies that, rather than ignoring what has been lost, recognise the importance of those values that have, for many of us, simply been ignored. That they continue to be ignored is a matter of shame.
Mary Evans
Patrixbourne, Kent
Larry Elliott is unduly optimistic about the prospects for a second term for Labour. He argues that the shock of Brexit has faded but, like a slow bruise concealed by Covid and the Conservative circus, it continues to disfigure our economy.
For most remainers and, I suspect, Brexiters with buyer’s remorse, there is no surprise about Keir Starmer’s hopeless political judgment. It was first writ large in his decision to force his party to vote for Boris Johnson’s catastrophic Brexit despite knowing the colossal harm it would cause. After that error, he was forced by his own hand to compound it with the EU red lines that continue to strangle him, every other prospective Labour leader, and our economy.
Much as they would like to forget it, Brexit will remain the biggest economic injury to this country since the second world war, and Labour remains central to it.
The only thing Starmer can do is to implement electoral reform. It will not save Labour at the next election, but it will at least increase the chance of a left-of-centre alliance capable of delivering the meaningful change that people clearly want.
Trevor Lawson
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire
Larry Elliott, bemoaning the UK’s lack of growth, argues that conditions are ripe for business investment as the delays to capital spending caused by Brexit and the war in Ukraine fade. A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated UK business investment at 12%-18% below what it would have been without Brexit as a result of the “large, broad and long-lasting increase in uncertainty”.
As the global economy enters an era of heightened uncertainty, all the signs indicate that the uncertainty associated with an isolated and politically unstable UK will continue to impede the levels of investment necessary to reverse post-Brexit economic deterioration. Time, I think, to acknowledge that the only way to generate sufficient investment to restore respectable economic growth, and thereby Labour’s standing, would be to rejoin the single market.
Sean Rickard
Newton Blossomville, Buckinghamshire
Larry Elliott charts a possible course for Labour to win the next general election, but why should we care about the Labour party and its electoral chances?
Labour should not assume that voters have an emotional attachment to the party which transcends policy and competence. We care only about practical ideas which will improve our country, and if those are proposed by other parties then that is where our votes will go.
In particular, given our fragmented politics, it is arrogant foolishness of Labour to rule out working with the Liberal Democrat and Green parties. The best hope to defeat the right may come from electoral pacts which focus on opposition to the dangerous regressive parties.
Paul Keeling
Welling, Kent
