Will Hutton’s thoughts on the catastrophe that is the Tory party are the definitive explanation of why we are where we are (“Thatcherism, austerity, Brexit, Liz Truss… goodbye and good riddance to all that”). As usual, his opinion is a hot knife through butter. Having grown up in the north-west during the Thatcher years, I saw how she successfully planted the idea that if you didn’t have money you were “less than”. Let’s be honest: she not only planted the idea, she made it so.
Margaret Thatcher made the ultimate mistake of persuading many that the free market would take care of everything. The Tory party has slavishly followed that mantra, to the cost of the whole of the UK. It’s way beyond time for them to face up to the damage they have done.
Su Hardman
Woodbridge, Suffolk
One important aspect of Thatcherism that you omitted was privatisation. On top of the income from North Sea oil, Thatcher had the money from selling publicly owned organisations on the cheap to her allies. Her stated reason was to make them “more efficient”, but it was really about destroying public sector trade unions. As we know now, this made big money for bosses and shareholders but cut employee terms and conditions. These organisations still provide a worse service, despite being heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. Having killed their golden goose, the Tories are still trying to sell the eggs.
Michael Peel
London SW16
Me, me, me
I found David Robson’s panacea for wellbeing depressing rather than a cause for optimism (“Why looking after No 1 isn’t always best”). Behaviourist experiments, he argues, demonstrate that giving to others is rewarded by better personal mental health and a longer life. What counts is what the self-serving individual (“me”) can gain from this dalliance with good deeds. It reminds me of the institutionalisation of “community service” by universities so as to bolster a student’s CV and employment opportunities.
Instead of fixing his brain waves, Robson might be better off contemplating the history of the centuries-old battle of progressive religion and socialism in defence of society and the community against the corrosive dehumanisation of neoliberal individualism.
Neil MacMaster
Norwich
I huffed and I puffed
Regarding the article “Bagging a Munro gets easier as volunteers fund repairs to mountain paths”: I understand that repairing erosion is necessary. I completed the Munros in 2009. That was perhaps the end of an era when Munros were less frequented. I am glad that I was able to huff and puff, scramble and navigate on often pathless ascents and experience that sense of adventure challenging oneself in the wilderness. Walking up an engineered path is just not the same. As one drives around Scotland now, the popular setting-off points are crammed with cars, which was not so during the seven years that I did most of my ascents.
I find it all quite sad, but fortunately there are still hundreds of uneroded tempting summits in Scotland that are not classified in Sir Hugh’s list where that sense of exploration on rarely visited heather-clad hills can be experienced.
Conrad Robinson
Arnside, Cumbria
Restore key subjects in school
Labour is right to add VAT to the fees that private schools charge (“Number of private school pupils rises despite claims families priced out by Labour’s VAT plan”). It is also scandalous that they benefit from an 80% discount on business rates, while state schools are falling apart as a result of a lack of government funding.
Labour’s plan to use this extra money from VAT on fees on teacher recruitment won’t fix the serious problem that the article didn’t mention: staff retainment. Thousands are leaving every year due to stress, a lack of resources, funding cuts to key subjects and the decline in discipline as a result of the austerity measures imposed on our state schools.
Labour needs to fund and restore the teaching of key subjects that have been stripped from many state schools. Pupils are already facing an uncertain future, but, by giving them a good education, Labour can at least offer them hope.
Stuart Finegan
Lewes, East Sussex
Middlesbrough’s woes
I too have witnessed the scale of the drug and alcohol use in deprived areas of Middlesbrough (“In Middlesbrough, I found drug dealers and their victims locked in a circle of despair”). Driving from my mother’s nursing home, groups of crack cocaine users and hardened drinkers congregate on corners just feet from children riding bikes or playing football. Austerity and 14 years of Conservative government have blighted communities and homes. Middlesbrough needs a lot of investment for drug services, neighbourhood renewal and, most importantly, policies that invest in children, eliminating the poverty stunting young lives.
Karen Groves
Whinney Banks, Middlesbrough
Reform our voting system
The country is hurtling towards one of the most distorted election outcomes in history. The Observer reported last week that the two main parties’ share of the vote could be the lowest since the Second World War (News). And the vote-to-seat ratio could be more skewed than ever, with Labour winning 68% of seats on 40% of votes and small parties winning millions of votes between them but gathering few, if any, seats.
At the heart of the problems with our democracy is the voting system. First past the post simply ignores millions of voters.
Across the country, the desire for a new politics is palpable. We welcome the fact that it is widely recognised that FPTP has a negative impact on our politics. But parties must work together to decide on the best system of proportional representation and how to implement it.
Failure to reform our institutions to give people a meaningful voice will only further undermine trust and engagement in our politics and lead to greater alienation and distrust. This must be the last general election when the ideas we need are kept off the table because only a tiny percentage of people’s votes count.
Neal Lawson, director, Compass; Tom Brake, director, Unlock Democracy; Alberto Smith, interim chief strategy officer, Make Votes Matter; Jennifer Nadel, co-director, Compassion in Politics; Peter Dunphy, founding director, Unite to Reform; Rachael Henry, head of advocacy and policy, Tax Justice UK; Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO, New Economics Foundation; Willie Sullivan, senior director, Electoral Reform Society
The 1945 general election result may have produced low support for the main parties, but it did bring in a government that set up the NHS, ran the railways at an operating profit, concluded the Second World War without leading to another and arranged independence so that India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka all chose freely to join the Commonwealth. I can live with that.
Adrian Betham
London N6
