A thoughtful article by Andy Beckett (It’s Corbyn’s last stand. But can he beat Labour’s Starmerite machine?, 24 May). The Labour party has always had idealists who have been important to the heart of the movement. They have also often been problematic to their party leaders. Think Clement Attlee and Nye Bevan, Harold Wilson and Tony Benn.
As a Labour party member, I did not vote for Jeremy Corbyn and did not believe he could lead the Labour party to electoral success. Sadly, I was proved right.
However, I hope he does well in Islington North as a reminder to us of the socialist hope. To build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land. We need a centrist, electable Labour party that can take on the Tories and win. And we need the poets, idealists and dreamers too.
Name and address supplied
• It makes me feel sad to think that this might be Jeremy Corbyn’s last stand. I joined the Labour party in order to be able to vote for him in the leadership election. He wasn’t a particularly good leader and he was a hopeless orator, but I admired him for his principled stand on a lot of issues. His exclusion from the party was unfortunate, not entirely fair and looked like sour grapes to me. The Labour party under Keir Starmer has been emasculated. Labour will probably win the election, but it is a hollowed-out version of its former self.
Libby Telling
Hereford
• Following the unsurprising announcement that Jeremy Corbyn will seek to serve his community as an independent candidate (Jeremy Corbyn to stand as independent at general election, 24 May), can I be among the first to express my envy of the people of Islington North to be offered the opportunity to vote for an alternative to Tory policies?
The rest of the country are faced with a choice of either the same sort of policies that have destroyed the country for the last 44 years, or a lurch still further into fascism. To be offered the opportunity to vote for an alternative is a rare privilege indeed in this country. The rest of us remain unrepresented and marginalised.
Simon Short
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
• It breaks my heart that Jeremy Corbyn will have to stand as an independent. There is a chance that his seat could be the only Tory gain at this long-awaited election – there’s absolutely no doubt that he will split the vote. If that lets a Tory in, what a sad way for them to say farewell after all of his genuine, meaningful work.
Susan Merli
Accrington, Lancashire
• Andy Beckett seems to think Jeremy Corbyn standing as an independent will be an embarrassment to Keir Starmer. Quite the opposite, I suggest. Starmer will be delighted that Magic Grandpa has put his own interests above those of the Labour party, not for the first time, proving that the decision to eject him was always right. Corbyn is back in his happy place, protesting without responsibility. Starmer and Britain are better off without him.
Graeme Smith
Maidenhead, Berkshire
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