What now for Labour after EU election fiasco?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/28/what-now-for-labour-after-eu-election-fiasco

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Congratulations to Paul Mason for his honest and damning critique not only of the Labour party’s disastrous local and European election campaigns, but also its approach to Brexit as determined by Jeremy Corbyn’s “team”, against the wishes of the majority of its members and many of its activists (Corbynism is in crisis: Labour will have to oppose Brexit, 28 May). Mason’s argument for a clearout of Corbyn’s close advisory team is correct and urgent, but he would be unwise to hold his breath.

On 27 May, as a Labour party member I received an email from Corbyn expressing his “disappointment” at the European election result. He informed me that “with the Conservatives disintegrating and unable to govern, and parliament deadlocked, this issue will now have to go back to the people, whether through a general election or a public vote”.

As an exercise in destructive ambiguity, this statement would be hard to beat. It is hard to see, for example, how it will persuade voters in Peterborough on 6 June to return the Labour candidate.Derek MckiernanEdinburgh

• Paul Mason writes that he will “enthusiastically circle the wagons around Corbyn”, but blames his advisers for misguiding him. I’m baffled by this tendency to treat Jeremy Corbyn as if were a kindly but bewildered old gent who had fallen under the malign influence of relatives abusing their power of attorney. Is he their boss or is he too – to borrow John Crace’s phrase – Lino, Leader in Name Only?Glyn TurtonBaildon, West Yorkshire

• Paul Mason’s response to Labour’s EU election failure mirrors that of Theresa May after her 2017 general election fiasco, namely sack the advisers – Nick Timothy/Fiona Hill or Seumas Milne et al – rather than the person who appointed them and took their advice.Tony ColeLondon

• Gloria De Piero is clearly more concerned about the future of the Labour party than she is about the country (Switching to remain would wreck Labour, 28 May). Her plea is about saving the alleged historic coalition that defines her party, yet appears to think thatabandoning any hope of remaining in the EU and embracing Brexit will satisfy the overwhelmingly pro-remain party to which she belongs. Jeremy Corbyn’s fence-sitting has been the main contributor to Labour’s disastrous European election, but why jumping off it into the Brexit camp would save its bacon, rather than in the other direction towards a referendum, is unclear.

Ms De Piero then repeats Nigel Farage’s favourite trope that a new referendum is simply about “a political establishment that wants to keep asking the same question until it gets the answer it wants”. Forgive me, but how does this mysterious cabal of rogues force voters in a free and fair poll into giving them the result they want? Would thumbscrews be involved? Waterboarding, perhaps?

We are a parliamentary democracy and a referendum has thrown time-honoured democratic processes into chaos. Our parliamentary representatives have tried and failed. There is no way out other than to ask the people what they are prepared to accept. A referendum got us into this mess, and only a referendum can get us out of it.Brian WilsonGlossop, Derbyshire

• The protestations of Gloria De Piero just won’t do. There developed an unholy consensus that the referendum was binding. People’s expectations were not dashed by Labour or Conservative, for their own tribal reasons. How easy it was for people’s expectations to be raised and exploited by unscrupulous influences.

Trying to unite people was an obvious dead end. You can’t turn black into white. Politicians can’t go on doing this. They have to look for the least worst option, which will inevitably satisfy some, but not all, of the population. Then they must rebuild. There must be a national conversation about who the British are and where we want to go. It could be a painful time, but also an exciting one.Val MainwoodWivenhoe, Essex

• Gloria De Piero is a much-needed voice of sanity at a dangerous time for the country. It is not leave or remain that matters now: if Labour treats its voters with contempt and campaigns to rerun a referendum to get a different result, many of those voters will never vote again. It seems that Labour’s Blairites and Momentum have united to ratify the old adage that voting wouldn’t be allowed if it changed anything.

In or out of the EU, effecting real economic and social change is central to the Labour party project. The working-class part of the leave vote was largely a cry for change: Labour ignores that at its peril.Peter McKennaLiverpool

• Speaking of another referendum, Gloria De Piero asks why a narrow remain victory would have legitimacy when the first referendum didn’t. The answer is that we are three years older and wiser than we were when we were peddled those Brexiter lies and are under no illusions about the negative effects of any Brexit. If I were convicted of a crime on what later turned out to be false evidence, I would expect a retrial. And so I imagine would Ms De Piero.John CrellinAddingham, West Yorkshire

• Polly Toynbee rightly calls for anti-Brexit forces to unite across party lines (Remainers won these elections. They’d win a referendum too, 28 May). The problem is that this is unlikely to happen if we wait for the respective leaderships to get the message: despite some encouraging signs, they have too much invested in dysfunctional party tribalism.

Now is the time for those opposed to Brexit, and in favour of the UK playing a constructive role in the EU, to take the lead and come together at constituency, borough and even ward level to end the narrow-minded nightmare that leavers are trying to drag us into. Members of any or, like me, no party should speedily form alliances to work for this end.Roger HallamPalmers Green, London

• If Labour’s Methodist forebears were still around, they would surely have pointed Jeremy Corbyn towards the words of Paul, also known as Saul of Tarsus, and full-time organiser of the early Christians. “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? … except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood … ye shall speak into the air” (I Corinthians 14:8).

To put it another way, repeating endlessly that you have a clear policy is not the same as actually having one.Judith CondonHalesworth, Suffolk

• Is there a better example of triangulation than Owen Jones proposing his newest solution to Labour’s policy on Brexit (A second referendum is a bad option for Labour. But it may be the only one left, 27 May). The tortuous path of outlining a compromise when he could just say, “I got it wrong”.Kathleen ThompsonCambourne, Cambridgeshire

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