Chess moves at the heart of battle for control of the Labour party
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Version 0 of 1. So, Polly Toynbee, what’s it to be (For the Tories, closed ranks: for Labour, open warfare, 12 July)? Deselect the membership and appoint a new one, or SDP mark 2? You’ve been here before, and come back. Isn’t it time to take the membership seriously instead of constantly belittling its collective sense? I am a member. I shall be 70 in a few days’ time. I was born in a council house and raised there, and then in cheap rented accommodation when my parents could no longer afford the council rents. We weren’t dirt poor, but in the rented house we had no bathroom and an outside toilet. But the postwar Attlee government had begun to make a welfare state and Bevan had created the NHS. Schools were much better, and we young ones were much healthier. We had a chance our parents did not. After my father died from a hideous cancer contracted from the filthy working conditions he endured, I went to grammar school and then to university. I worked for the Workers’ Educational Association for 15 years and then in university adult education, in Leeds and Glasgow, always with the aim of trying to bring university education to working people who, for no fault of their own, were denied it after leaving school. I’m not a natural Labour party member, but nor have I ever been a Trotskyist, and I joined up when Jeremy Corbyn stood for election in the hope that, in this abundantly rich country, ordinary working people might get a share of the spoils that were enriching that tiny minority who take so much and give back so little. It’s not a leftwing programme, it is common humanity. Corbyn is not the greatest leader – after all, he’s nearly as old as me – and I hope a younger, sharper one will emerge whom he may mentor and in time give way to. I hope it’s a woman. Those around him may be a little too zealous. He and the rest of us should be given a chance. The Labour party membership does not deserve the haughty rancour of the liberal press or the treachery of those elected through their tenacious voluntary commitment. MPs must reach a compromise with the membership and not fight it tooth and nail until there is no membership and merely an empty husk of a once worthwhile party.Tom SteeleOtley, West Yorkshire • I wonder if Polly Toynbee now believes that great leader syndrome is the antidote to the democratic will of the Labour party membership? It is, however, difficult to be a great leader if most of the MPs you’re supposed to be leading behave like rude and sulky schoolchildren who are out to get you from day one of your tenure, and also make it blindingly obvious to the party’s political enemies. Putting aside the myopia of the MPs who decided to synchronise their coup against Corbyn with pandemonium inside the Tory establishment, where exactly is the great leader who will heal all? Polly has done an excellent job of holding the Tories to account, but she also seems to have allowed her preoccupation with leadership to fail to recognise its drawbacks. While Angela Eagle, if elected, will presumably expect a greater display of loyalty from MPs and members than she has shown herself, I saw her being interviewed by Andrew Neil when she announced her challenge, and she displayed the bouncy charisma of John Chilcot in hibernation. Perhaps it was just a bad day. Or perhaps leadership develops with time in office? The PLP has decided to try to assassinate its leader in a very public and inept coup. It has also apparently turned its back on a different political direction when even the new Tory prime minister has publicly acknowledged the need for a fairer and more equal society. What criminally reckless behaviour.Stewart PerkinsMarket Drayton, Shropshire • John McDonnell’s words, “as plotters, they’re fucking useless” (Report, 13 July), seem to be an accurate description to me, and fair comment. Being from an older generation (age nearly 79), I don’t myself use “fucking”, but I am getting very close to doing so when I read attacks on Jeremy Corbyn in the Guardian. If politicians can’t cope with everyday language, it shows how far removed they are from the people they supposedly represent. By the way, wasn’t the Guardian the first paper to print “fuck”?Ann PughWalsall, West Midlands • For the first time ever, I am considering voting for the Conservative party. Had Labour given an endorsement for change akin to that Theresa May put at the forefront of her own campaign, they would have had my vote in 2015. Instead I voted Green. When Corbyn was elected leader I was overjoyed. Finally, someone offering an alternative. Now the undignified scramble in the party and the autocratic attitude of MPs in elevating themselves above the party membership means I will refuse to vote for them if Corbyn is ousted. So, I am a Corbynista – and how I hope there’s a special place in purgatory reserved for whichever wag came up with that epithet – perhaps about to seek refuge with the Tories. Is this a sign of the confusion of the times? Or a private confusion I ought not to advertise?Pete MarchettoGuilin, Guangxi province, China • As a Labour party member since age 18 who has campaigned for all leaders since Foot, it pains me to say this, but a new mainstream socialist party needs to be formed. If Corbyn is elected as expected, Labour MPs should resign the whip and form a new parliamentary socialist party – how about the Independent Labour party, which in the 1930s had strong roots in the north and Scotland? If all MPs who oppose Corbyn break away, they could elect a new leader, who would be the new leader of the opposition. It could also appeal to the majority of trade unionists who appear not to back Corbyn. This is fraught with many risks, including the Tories calling a general election amid the chaos, but what is the alternative? We need to see courage and leadership.Steve FlatleyYork • I hope Angela Eagle and Jeremy Corbyn play chess. Mate in three moves? Coronation of May; decent but brief diversionary pause for Labour to sink as deeply as possible into the mire; go to the country: enormous Tory majority.David PackhamTimsbury, Somerset • I have just come across the moves of one of Angela Eagle’s championship chess games, which are listed online. In this game, dated 1979, Angela wins against a version of the so-called King’s Indian Defence played by her twin sister, Maria. By move five, it is clear that Angela has complete control of the centre; and her 12th move is an aggressive pawn advance. Metaphor, or what?David HalpinLeeds • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |