The big issue: Neil Kinnock and the Labour party’s vision – or lack of it

http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2015/aug/09/neil-kinnock-labour-party-vision-big-issue

Version 0 of 1.

I have a lot of respect for Neil Kinnock, who was so unfairly lampooned when he was Labour leader. So I am very disappointed that he joins in the scare stories about “malign purposes” of alleged Trotskyite and Tory participants in the leadership election (“Labour needs a prime minister, not a debate. It needs Burnham”, Comment).

Labour is in opposition and it is not the 2020 election that it should be focusing on, but the here and now. With such a small majority, it is conceivable that the Tory government can be defeated on some of its most retrogressive policies – child benefit, for example. The smallest of victories would be well worthwhile for the individuals affected and every one of those victories will help to pave the way for the bigger victory in 2020.

When I did my first canvassing for the Labour party in 1945, like millions of others I had a vision of a better world where poverty would be abolished; where the planet’s resources would be fairly shared; where differences between nations were no longer settled by periodically slaughtering one another; and where the common humanity of the peoples of the world was recognised as more important than all their differences and divisions. I still have that vision. It is more important than ever today and Jeremy Corbyn is the only leadership candidate who has put forward anything remotely resembling it, the only one who has mentioned the word “peace”, which is why he is receiving so much support. Frank JacksonHarlow Labour party

Related: Labour needs a prime minister, not a debate. It needs Andy Burnham

Neil Kinnock is right: Labour values must appeal to everyone. This is not a protest rally. Labour must offer “coherent, practical answers to daily challenges and tangible prospects of fulfilling hopes and ambitions”. Corbyn represents something altogether woollier, a sort of universal university campus, where a benign but powerless leader promises the earth. He is spectacularly light on reality and on policies that bear scrutiny. We should listen to Kinnock.Carolyn KirtonAberdeen

Reading the comments of those students who are now apparently supporting Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership election (“Corbynistas… so who are the young people signing up to the campaign shaking Labour?”, News) reminded me of my feelings when the Tories won the 1979 election, after which we had 18 years of successive Tory governments. That was not a nice experience (to put it mildly).

I won’t offer advice to others on how to vote but I wonder if some of those who cannot remember what 18 years of Tory government actually feels like are slightly curious to find out.Richard HassallLeeds

I’m 66 and have never been a member of a political party, but I am inclined to join Labour if Corbyn manages to transform the party and reconnect with its original mission. We need centre-left conviction politics, not timid technocratic tinkering with a failed neoliberal experiment!Philip WoodKidlingtonOxon

It has been interesting to see the other Labour leadership candidates asserting that if Jeremy Corbyn is elected they would not agree to serve in his cabinet. This is short-sighted and petty. As a lifelong Conservative, I am certainly not a party toady and often disagree with some of the policies implemented, but I take the view that I am better placed to influence decisions that are made by being inside the party rather than outside it.Linda Piggott-VijehCombe St NicholasSomerset

I understand why the Tory press is running down the apparent success of Jeremy Corbyn. I don’t know why the Observer follows its lead.Norman GreavesLoughborough