Readers' letters - July 18

In my lifetime of over 60 years, I cannot recall any other political party leader who has had as much personal abuse thrown at him as Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader. Elected last September after his landslide with a 59.5 per cent victory, Mr Corbyn has been bullied by politicians from all sides as well as the right-wing press. To the man’s credit, he has never retaliated.

Keeping his cool, he has just got on with the job in hand, kept a civil tongue when interviewed on television and radio, continued his fight in a proper manner speaking up on behalf of the sick, disabled, low-paid and the less well-off in our society.

Is this not something that you would expect from a leader of the Labour party?

Since he was elected, the knives have been out, backed by Blair, Mandelson, Campbell, Kinnock, Blunkett and the rest in their sordid back-handed way to remove him from office.

Blaming him for Brexit, they seized on the opportunity to further drag him down by calling a ‘vote of no confidence’ in him with the rebel MPs victorious by 172 to 40.

Corbyn had, and still has, a huge mandate from the majority of party members to change direction. We now need to see what the party membership think, not what the majority of the parliamentary party think.

John Yale

via email

politics

Stop clinging on to power

Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters claim, perhaps rightly, that he is a man of principle with the country’s good at heart.

Don’t he and his band realise that his clinging on is bad for both the Labour Party’s already feeble standing and for the country? We need good, credible opposition, not a rowing, scheming band which is the Labour Party at present, totally unelectable under Corbyn. His love of party and country is, I’m afraid, skin deep. He loves power, however insignificant. To put forward his socialist ideas, perhaps him and his followers should form another party and see where they get to.

C Sharp,

Address supplied


tax

Scrap this tax on sugar

When George Osborne stood up in Parliament in March to announce the sugar tax, the prospect of Brexit was distant and remote.

The political dynamics have changed significantly since then. Many businesses, particularly smaller ones, are facing months of uncertainty, and the sugar tax is adding to this uncertainty. We know the inflationary impact of the sugar tax will mean an extra £1bn of national debt interest, UK pension funds will be £3bn worse off, and we also think £250m will need to be spent on uprating index-linked benefits because of the sugar tax.

It is a deeply unfair tax on poorer households, is unhelpful for businesses, and will do very little to reduce obesity levels. We call on the new Chancellor to take account of the new political environment and to scrap the sugar tax.

Lara Evans,

People against Sugar Tax

politics

Where is the opposition?

There are cries for a General Election but I ask what’s the point? I don’t like the Tories but who can I vote for? Where is the effective opposition? Please can we wait until Labour get its act together?

CJK via email