Letter of the week: Small government
Andrew Marr writes of 'the spreading perception that democratic politics is failing' (Politics, 20 June), but makes no mention of the one issue I would suggest is key to this: illegal immigration, and the small-boats 'crisis' in particular. This is not to do with the actual number of arrivals, which is tiny compared to other forms of immigration, but the failure of successive administrations to solve this issue, which feeds a crisis in trust.
It reminds me of a story told about the former Labour MP Lena Jeger when she was campaigning in 1953 in Holborn and St Pancras. For Jeger, the issue of the day was the rearmament of West Germany. When canvassing in a block of council flats, she noticed the smell of urine in the lift. One woman listened patiently to Jeger's pitch about the folly of rearming the Germans, and then asked whether she'd used the lift. 'Stinks of pee, doesn't it? Can't you stop 'em peeing in our lift?'
'I don't think I can,' replied Jeger. 'Well,' said the woman, 'if you can't stop 'em peeing in our lift, how can you expect me to believe you can stop the Germans rearming?' If the Labour government cannot resolve the small-boats issue, then talk of all the other areas and initiatives mentioned by Marr will be for nought.
Daniel Callaghan, Ealing, London W13
New times, new thinking
Once again the New Statesman has shown how change can be managed: under a new editor the best of the old, expansion of the familiar, immensely welcome new contributors, thoughtful focus on new ideas, but no drastic alterations to the trusted formula of more than a century.
Veronica Baker-Smith, Pangbourne, Berks
Light touch
The latest Sketch piece by Matt Chorley (20 June) tickled me pink. After years of doom and gloom in the news, and cancel culture bottling up comedians, a piece that evenly takes a dig at all sides is a welcome relief. More servings of mirth and terrible puns please.
Charles Lambert, London SW15
Cautious optimism
David Miliband (World View, 13 June) describes a Damascus ice cream store being as 'packed as it was… in 2008'. Bashar al-Assad kept Syria together and reasonably well off until the Arab Spring. The new regime will face the same problem as him: some opposition will be seen as dangerous and have to be suppressed. For a while the country, exhausted by war, will be quiet, but every government resists being overthrown. Let us hope Syria succeeds where so many have failed.
Alice Edwards, Wokingham, Berks
Breakfast of champions
Pescatarian Keir Starmer (Cover Story, 13 June) must have had an alternative motive for his breakfast choice of 'plain, untouched baked beans', as I am sure the Royal Navy could have furnished him with eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and potentially even hash browns. A sign of a return to austerity, perhaps?
Colin Paine, Horsforth, Leeds
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Literature's last stand
Hearty congratulations to James Marriott for his brilliant article on the decline of literature (The New Society, 13 June). His remark to his interviewers at Oxford, that 'literature shows us what it is or might be to be human', is spot on: certainly Dickens, TS Eliot and George Eliot, to name just a few, have taught me far more about that than the 'vulgar parvenu' of psychology, which I studied in the 1960s. I looked upon those people who studied English with envy. The fate of literature may not be the cause of catastrophe in our civilisation, or vice versa, but, as Marriott says, I too fear they might be coterminous.
Nigel Austin, Dorchester, Dorset
Power of writing
Reading Pippa Bailey's Deleted Scenes (20 June) on the death of her father brought tears to my eyes. It was a deeply moving account of personal loss that also managed to be universal. It cannot have been an easy piece to write, but I am so glad she did and shared it with us. Honest, powerful and underlying the importance of human connections – writing like this is why I read the New Statesman. Thank you.
John Adcock, Ashtead, Surrey
Lezard spins eternal
Returning to the New Statesman after several years, I was pleased to find that, in a world getting madder by the day, Lezard remains, spinning, as always, a thread of comforting continuity. Wonderful.
Patrick O'Brien, Capel Seion, Aberystwyth
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[See also: Keir Starmer faces war on all fronts]
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