With there being plenty of reasons not to vote Tory, and very few to vote Labour, Jonathan Freedland’s excellent advice needs to be heeded (Here’s what we have learned: Starmer can’t dazzle like Blair, but might still rid us of Johnson, 6 May). Of course, they should “talk a bit less” about the Tories’ incompetence and “a bit more about what Labour will do” and, perhaps Freedland could have added, listen less to current advisers.
Why isn’t Starmer being properly prepared for interviews, so that, instead of Tory-like obfuscation and avoidance tactics, there could be clarity and detailed answers? Questions about how, in view of opposition to recent national insurance rises, Labour would raise the £12bn, or about the 10 pledges he made in the leadership campaign, are inevitable, so the answers should be practised. Didn’t anyone on his team watch The West Wing? How can they expect to overtake Tories as the party most trusted with the economy if their leader will not disclose any fiscal plans?
Starmer may not dazzle, as Freedland says, but he doesn’t have to look like a disgruntled 1950s farmer brought in from the haymaking to attend a wedding, as he did on last week’s party political broadcast. Is it any wonder the turnout was low? The trouble is that it will be similar in the general election unless the advice for Starmer improves.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool
• Well, it’s a step in the right direction for Labour, but it ought to have been so much better. Jonathan Freedland hits the nail on the head. Apart from the one-off windfall tax (though even that is poorly sold by not emphasising that it’s about excess profits) there is little of substance to separate Labour from the disastrous Tory non-policies, with vague references to tackling the cost of living crisis and not imposing the NI increase.
It is little wonder that voters stayed away in even larger numbers than usual since there was a lot to vote against but little to vote for. Labour, having distanced itself from Jeremy Corbyn and his -istas, is still scared to do anything that might frighten the horses. Where, for example, are the proposals for a fair income tax system that requires the rich to pay their fair share, a wealth tax, council tax reform, a realistic replacement for the shameful social care mess, a reintroduction of Sure Start and many other policies that would be popular if properly explained?
Based on similar horse-frightening fears, there is Labour’s pathetic Make Brexit Work mantra when it is patently obvious that Brexit does not work and, even over Jacob Rees-Mogg’s 50-year timescale, never will. Labour should at least be firmly in favour of rejoining the single market and explaining the reasons, not the least of which is resolving the debacle in Northern Ireland.
Alan Healey
Baschurch, Shropshire
• I weep over comments that Starmer does not “dazzle”. Alas, upcoming young voters have known nothing else but celebrity and charisma. Old folk like me look for someone to lead who is able, honest, who puts the needs of ordinary people first, and who can make articulate speeches with meaning and worthwhile purpose. Starmer ticks these boxes, to say the least. How utterly sad that these attributes are no longer fashionable.
Betty Rosen
London
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
