Letters: Why this Labour voter won’t be celebrating a landslide for Keir Starmer
SIR – I’m confused by those former Conservative voters swarming to Reform UK. In doing so they will only hand Labour an even larger majority (“Tory wipeout”, report, June 20), which will not be good for either the next parliament or our democracy.
As a Labour supporter I’m strangely hoping that the shy Tory vote will appear at the last minute, as it has done before, and allow the party to provide some sort of opposition.
Christian Froggatt
Reigate, Surrey
SIR – The mandate for Boris Johnson in 2019 should have resulted in Tory government for many years – yet through arrogance, incompetence and lying, the party has achieved the most spectacular reversal. Absolutely criminal, in anyone’s book.
Graham Nicholson
Rowlands Castle, Hampshire
SIR – Given the devastating predictions of your survey, it is obvious that Labour is heading for a landslide. The Tory mantra of “Vote Reform, get Labour” therefore has no traction.Conflicted voters are now free to back Reform with a clear conscience.
George Kelly
Buckingham
SIR – A Labour landslide would be preferable to narrow win, as it would allow Sir Keir Starmer to keep his far-Left in check.
In the meantime, Thatcherite Conservatives can vote Reform in order to send the Tories a badly needed message.
Tony Marshall
Rudgwick, West Sussex
SIR – A Labour landslide with no opposition would be a disaster. After all, “power corrupts, while absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
We may end up looking back on the past 14 years as the good old days.
David Coverdale
Leeds, West Yorkshire
SIR – Now where did I put that “Don’t blame me – I voted Conservative” car sticker?
Sue McNaughton
Eastergate, West Sussex
SIR – Throughout my adult life I have held views that would be considered moderately Right-of-centre. I have always voted Tory, believing in compassionate conservatism.
However, at this election there is no party representing my feelings, or those of millions of other people who would class themselves as “soft Right”.
Labour is now reminiscent of Tony Blair’s party, but it is still Left-wing. The Liberal Democrats have become a centre-Left party. The Conservatives, through the efforts of people like Suella Braverman, and because of the threat from Reform, have lurched to the Right. This means that a whole swathe of voters like me have effectively been disenfranchised.
Michael Thomas
Uffington, Oxfordshire
Just Stop Oil vandals
SIR – Having no conscience, Just Stop Oil protesters attacked Stonehenge (report, June 20). A line was crossed when Magna Carta was vandalised earlier this year. The courts must protect our heritage by making the punishment fit the crime.
This is not protest. It’s cultural vandalism – and it won’t stop unless we act firmly.
Dr Gerald Edwards
Glasgow
SIR – Cornflour – the substance thrown by Just Stop Oil protesters over Stonehenge – is probably one of the least damaging things for granite.
Turning Stonehenge orange scores high on impact and low on damage. Isn’t that what we want from activists?
David Burton
Dorking, Surrey
SIR – I assume the Just Stop Oil protesters walked to Stonehenge and used no fossil-fuel-powered transport.
Iain Maitland
Sherborne, Dorset
Parking privileges
SIR – Recently I parked in a disabled bay, as my husband has a Blue Badge. On our return, I was informed by an operative that I was parked illegally, and should pay using the RingGo app (Letters, June 20). As I thought that a Blue Badge allowed me to park in a disabled bay or even on double-yellow lines, I questioned this, and was told that no allowances were made by that company for Blue Badge holders.
If a Blue Badge allegedly gives us easier access for appointments and so on, then I am at a loss as to the legality of RingGo’s policies.
Ann Runacres
Ullenhall, Warwickshire
Scotland’s pride
SIR – As an Englishman, I am happy to record that Scottish football support has no equal (Sport, June 20).
When the fans paraded through Cologne, led by 20 or so pipers, it was an exhilarating sight. We should all wish them well.
Herbert Chappell
Woking, Surrey
SIR – I have no interest in football, but am surrounded by it. It never ceases, with the European Championship all summer and the English season from August to June the following year.
At school in the 1950s, I was forced to play football, and spent afternoons shivering as a goalkeeper. My best chum was Oliver Reed, the late actor, and like me he often prayed for rain and match abandonment. If this happened, we would take ourselves off to the cinema in Epsom, where in later life he appeared on screen.
Charles James
Bognor Regis, West Sussex
Taste in books
SIR – In 1976 I caused great hilarity at my town library by returning a book chewed by my spaniel (Letters, June 20). The book was Gundogs: Training and Field Trials by Peter Moxon.
The librarian allowed me to keep the book, having paid the 80-pence fine. I have it to this day.
Christopher Allen
Swettenham, Cheshire
SIR – I was a librarian for 37 years. One day a reader came with a bag full of paper and card strips that had once been a book. He said he’d put it on a conveyor at the local bakery as the lunch break was ending. The conveyor was turned on, and the book went through the bread slicer set on thick.
Richard Waller
Wigan, Lancashire
Education priorities
SIR – There have been many letters objecting to Labour’s plan to charge VAT on private school fees.
I have no objection to parents paying for private education, and realise that, for some of them, an increase in costs will necessitate hard decisions. Overall, however, this issue will affect a small proportion of pupils.
Meanwhile, the Government has failed to improve the standard of education for the 93 per cent of pupils in the state system. There is a shortage of teachers, staff are leaving because of dismal working conditions, buildings are in poor repair and promised new schools have not materialised. Surely these problems are of greater concern.
Alan Lloyd
Liverpool
SIR – Michael Deacon’s article (Features, June 20) reminded me of Anthony Crosland, the privately educated Labour education secretary from 1965 to 1967, who said: “If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to destroy every last f------ grammar school.”
He almost succeeded, and since then Oxford, Cambridge and other Russell Group universities have had to tweak their admissions criteria to promote “diversity and inclusion”. Labour’s measures levelled down opportunities for the children of relatively less well-off parents. Half a century later, they may have the same effect again.
Philip Corp
Salisbury, Wiltshire
SIR – As a young journalist in Edinburgh, my father was reporting on the run-up to the election of 1964.
On passing a fruit machine in the Edinburgh Press Club, he lent a few coins to the soon-to-be prime minister Harold Wilson (Letters, June 20), then watched scornfully as Wilson pocketed his paltry winnings without repaying the initial stake. The Labour Party hasn’t changed much since.
Christine Kennedy
Greenock, Renfrewshire
Fixing the fridge
SIR – I have a better remedy for Celia Walden’s broken fridge drawer (Features, June 18). These are made from brittle plastic that splits easily; superglue offers only a temporary fix.
Instead, take some staples, a small kitchen blowtorch and a pair of pliers. Grasp the staple with the pliers and heat it until it glows red, then press it flat over the split and push into the plastic, making a line of staples along the length of the split. The result may not be invisible, but it is effective.
Kate Boydell
Ugborough, Devon
A French cinema classic that never gets old
SIR – I was saddened to read Anouk Aimée’s obituary (June 19).
The film Un homme et une femme made a great impact on me in the 1960s.
It had a magnificent musical score by Francis Lai, which I still play at home. Incredibly atmospheric.
Robin Beynon
London SW14
Incompetent Britain is failing cancer patients
SIR – How apt that, on the day you report (June 19) that Britain is 20 years behind Europe on cancer care, I went to the pharmacy to collect my prescription for Tamoxifen, only to be told it was out of stock because of a national supply shortage. Again.
After a breast cancer diagnosis, the “predict” tool is used to show your individual likelihood of surviving five years. To calculate your overall chances of survival, the tool considers risk factors and treatment options. Should it now be updated to factor in the risk of a wholly incompetent government?
Sara Price
Poole, Dorset
SIR – My wife suffered from recurring pain after a repair to a broken hip in December 2020. Her subsequent NHS referral to an orthopaedic surgeon took more than a year. He referred her to the pain clinic, which took another six months. In February, she was put on the waiting list for an X-ray-guided injection. No date has been given. The NHS website says there is a 44-week waiting list.
A phone call to the clinic is answered by a recorded message saying that the east and west divisions are being amalgamated to streamline the service. Our GP wrote but received no reply.
My wife’s mobility has deteriorated so far that she is now in a wheelchair and needs mobility aids. We’ve had to put in a shower conversion and a stair climber, and get extra carers – the cost of which must far exceed that of an injection.
We’ve now resorted to a private appointment next month.
David Leech
Balcombe, West Sussex
SIR – My 95-year-old mother-in-law was referred to the day unit at a major hospital in Wales. After preliminary tests she was required to stay overnight for observation.
The wait for a bed on a hard plastic chair in reception lasted some 14 hours, until, at 2am, a trolley was found and put in an emergency ward. A bed was never allocated, and other patients also waiting for beds were still in reception at 7am. When challenged about the availability of a bed, a member of the medical staff said that “this was the current state of the health service in Wales”.
My message to those living in England is: be careful what you wish for when voting Labour.
Trevor Gall
Carmarthen
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