Letter of the week: Build back better

New Statesman​

3 days ago

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Jason Cowley asks: 'Which England do you believe in?' (The Diary, 1 August). My answer: both. My belief in the England of the Lionesses is one of faith, supported by many good things I see around me. My belief in the cowardly anonymous online haters, broken Britain, etc, is based on the reality of a world that Anoosh Chakelian describes as one of low wages, housing shortages and a crumbling public realm (Cover Story, 1 August).
If a structure is collapsing, a good place to look is at the foundations. Perhaps the story Keir Starmer needs to tell is that Labour, having taken over the structure of the public realm, found the state of its foundations to be worse than they believed possible. Their challenge now is to fix these foundations. This will be time-consuming, expensive and will not lead quickly to visible results – it's not sexy. Few will admire the out-of-sight, out-of-mind work involved. It takes courageous leadership to tell difficult truths, and faith that those you lead will back you to do what is needed, even if that means short-term discomfort. The alternative is populist leaders who tell the people what they want to hear.
Paul Wotton, Wells, Somerset
Brew-haha
As a fan of both Timothy Taylor's Landlord and Sangiovese, and also of Cheddar and Parmesan, I cannot agree that 'the English win every time' (Editor's Note, 1 August). Michael Henderson clearly isn't comparing like with like. And Tom McTague is right to fear the wrath of the Italian ambassador for suggesting that 'cheese with fish is fine'. Many years ago I earned a rollicking in a campsite trattoria in Tuscany for requesting Parmesan on a fish pasta dish, and then compounding my error by ordering a cappuccino after lunch.
Allan Buckley, Greystoke, Cumbria
Tom McTague asked us to write in response to his Editor's Note, so here's my effort. No need to hide under your desk: I agree Theakston Old Peculier and Black Sheep (different breweries, but same family) are superior to Guinness. I retried the Irish nectar this week while enjoying the Yorkshire vs Sussex cricket at Scarborough; it is an acquired taste which I haven't developed.
Jim Martin, Scarborough
Tom McTague is certainly right that Theakston Old Peculier, a beautiful, flavoursome local cask ale, is superior to Guinness, a global pasteurised keg stout. Mind you, the latter is still superior to the ersatz offerings of the global predator brewers that have destroyed much of British brewing. Perhaps the New Statesman needs a full-scale piece on the political economy of brewing, a case study in vulture capitalism.
Andy Cooper, Worcester
A year of living Labourishly
What I found very refreshing about Andrew Marr's article (Politics, 1 August) was that it offered a perspective on Labour's progress at odds with the narrow and hostile perspective of much of the media, and indeed, of many of my friends, most of whom are on the left.
In 1979, when I joined the Labour Party, many people abandoned Labour under the illusion that the Callaghan government was 'not much better than the Tories'. In 2010 many people abandoned Labour because of the Blair government's betrayal over Iraq and its compromises with the centre right. For many, these were adequate reasons for not voting Labour. In 2019, I knocked on doors for Labour in Hastings and was repeatedly told: 'I can't vote for Labour while it is led by Corbyn.' But even Jeremy Corbyn would have been preferable to Boris Johnson.
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Marr offers a corrective to the view that this Labour government is 'no better than the Tories'. James Callaghan and Gordon Brown, for all their faults, were vastly superior to what followed them: Thatcher, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak. We should all carry around in our back pockets Marr's list of Labour's achievements in its first year, just to remind us of what our fight with the Tories is all about.
Dick Brown, Buxted, East Sussex
Going to waste
The interview with the Unite organiser Joe Rollin (Interview, 1 August) while he was on his way to Birmingham to support the bin strike has him claiming that '85 per cent of the city's residents supported the strike'. The fact is that most residents are fed up with both Unite and the council, and just want this unnecessary strike settled.
Tony Wright, Birmingham
Straight down the middle
Donald Trump tells us, 'I know nothing about the boats,' but doesn't let that prevent him from having an opinion (The Sketch, 1 August). Well, I know nothing about golf, but it seems par for the course that he manages to double bogey during most away fixtures.
Les Bright, Exeter
Age of terror
I support Megan Gibson's contention that the proscription of Palestine Action over-extends the definition of terrorism (Reporter at Large, 1 August). However, I object to the implicit ageism in the sentence: 'If the definition of terrorism has become so wide it includes pensioners holding up placards, what does it even mean to be a terrorist any more?'
Nick Gould, emeritus professor of social work, University of Bath
Not-so-clean energy
Rachel Cunliffe draws our distracted attention to the government's announcement of its 'solar roadmap', surely an area of vital interest for us all (Bursting the Bubble, 1 August). Our 1970s workhorse of a gas boiler has developed a neat drip, which puts out the pilot light, so we want to put solar panels on our south-facing roof. But here arises an inconvenient truth: we can't find a source for solar panels that does not go back to the immiseration and forced labour of the people in the Uyghur region of China. To quote the International Energy Agency, 'The world will almost completely rely on China for the supply of key building blocks for solar panel production through 2025… China's share of global polysilicon, ingot and wafer production will soon reach almost 95 per cent. Today China's Xinjiang province accounts for 40 per cent of global polysilicon manufacturing.' I don't see how I cannot harm those people if I buy from China.
Sophy Gairdner, Bristol
Poetic justice
John Gray states 'there is reason in history' (The NS Essay, 1 August). From the same poem, 'Gerontion', that supplied the phrase 'a wilderness of mirrors', which Gray quotes, comes: 'History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors/And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,/Guides us by vanities.' Perhaps we should hope Trump gets lost in the corridors.
Margaret Sherborne, Barry, Wales
The way we were
As a survivor of the New Society staff back in its heroic decade from the mid 1960s, I winced at your books and culture section being retitled 'The New Society'. The magazine I worked for was that, and so much more. But happily in last week's issue, Anoosh Chakelian's cover story provided a model illustration in her piece on Diss and Epping of a New Society hallmark, that of serious reportage. Back then, we'd travel to where the action was to give a voice to the people concerned. There was the bonus that we attracted readers who wanted more than the clever writing honed in the office or the pub to be found in the then New Statesman and Spectator. Now that the challenge is to create bridges to better understand the current social and political malaise, may the new New Statesman build on that New Society tradition and flourish.
Anne Corbett, London SW5
On grief
Having gone through my fair share of bereavement at a (relatively) young age, I would like to thank both Pippa Bailey (Deleted Scenes, 1 August) and Hannah Barnes (Out of the Ordinary, 25 July) for sharing their own recent experiences of grief. While every relationship and therefore every loss is unique, it is an experience which is ultimately universal. Such honest writing is refreshing and relatable, and I wish there was more of it in public discourse.
Daniel Tewkesbury, Manchester
Whose party?
At the end of Commons Confidential (1 August) we return to the fascinating – to some of us – topic of a formal name for the new party of the left. No one seems to have considered the obvious: 'It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)'.
Steve Cornforth, Liverpool
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[See also: Inside the factions of the new left]
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