Re: Paul Mason’s “Labour must act fast to stop rise of Reform” (TNE #406). I wonder if a concerted approach to baiting Farage, relentlessly pointing out the weirdness of him and his party and their lies and inconsistencies, is a trick Labour and the Conservatives need to learn from Kamala Harris. Farage is prickly like Trump and will fall into all kinds of traps in response.
The other parties should also use “super empath” characters in senior positions to combat Farage. Who is our Tim Walz?
Ronald Eccles
I think it is naive to underrate Reform. Their supporters don’t do detail or want to mull over policies for government. Their motivation is anger and bigotry which, the world over and throughout history, brings unpleasant people to power.
Paul Mason is right – don’t underestimate their electoral potential. Grievance is a powerful motivator.
Robert Wade
Nigel Farage and co will sink themselves. We’ve seen it time and time again in this country; the far right will always fracture.
The benefit to Labour is a split right wing vote that means they can keep swanning to election victories with 30% of the vote, even if Starmer himself is unpopular.
Jack Millard
Not the sharpest
Re: Germansplaining on the Austrian right (TNE #406). I can’t see Herbert Kickl’s “You’re the boss, I’m the tool” slogan working in the UK, however appropriate it may be for a significant number of candidates.
David Irwin
Labour need a makeover
Alastair Campbell in his diary (TNE #406) takes a predictably transactional attitude towards the Labour Party’s communication strategy. Its purpose should be to neutralise a political opponent, in the case of the right wing press, and to do so by not providing it with opportunities to blow up minor scandals into big issues. Problems about glasses, clothes and other freebies should not be allowed to distract from more important issues.
But the problem with the Labour government at the moment goes deeper than that. During the election campaign, Keir Starmer and his colleagues claimed that they would restore trust in politics, making it a force for good. So far there has been little evidence that they know what this means.
When Lisa Nandy says that Labour ministers will stop taking donations of clothes out of “solidarity” with people in this country, she simply sounds condescending. They should stop doing it out of respect for an electorate disenchanted with politicians who seem to regard accepting personal donations as a benefit they deserve rather than evidence of corruption so baked into the system that it is no longer recognised as such.
What needs to be done is pretty obvious, a rigorous application of the Nolan principles on standards in public life. Keir Starmer and his ministers need better advice on what to say and how to say it. They also need to stop receiving personal donations of any kind.
Jon Cook
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Re: Alastair Campbell on the winter fuel allowance. This is an extremely poorly targeted benefit and a good 50% of it is wasted on people who don’t need it.
I’m sure its removal will affect some people who are not able to claim pension credit. There will also be a large number of people with smallish pensions and largeish houses.
For them the solution will be to do as I did: sell up and move somewhere cheaper (mine was a flat worth half the value of my family home) so as to have a decent standard of living in retirement.
Ann Harries
Right is wrong
Hooray for “Rage against the dying of the right” (TNE #406), and the idea that the right wing press is sinking! Bring back journalism that scrutinises, educates, and informs, and doesn’t scream hysterically at anything foreign just because it’s foreign.
Edward Bloomfield
Even if diminishing in influence, the papers seem to be continuing to drive the TV news agenda, so why aren’t the main protagonists exposed to the same challenge as politicians and others in the public eye? I’m talking about the editors, the owners and the likes of Paul Dacre and Paul Marshall. They seem to hide behind their publications and programmes and rarely if ever appear on Question Time or political blogs.
Richard Stollery
The Telegraph told Remainers that they should accept the Brexit result. Ironic that they now seem unable to accept the general election result.
Michael Murphy
The new government isn’t good at debunking the tabloids’ assertions. There were accusations that the pub garden smoking ban would “kill hospitality”, but Labour didn’t point out that only one in eight people smoke. And so the winter fuel allowance means testing, there was no clear statement as to what percentage of pensioners will keep it.
Tony Harold
Marie Le Conte writes in “Rage against the dying of the right”, “As their [the Daily Mail’s] older, more reactionary readers keep dying out, they will have to find a way to build a new base for themselves”.
Is it not the case that there is an inexhaustible supply of ageing turncoats ready to take their place? If not, the right is literally in terminal decline.
Rory Cunningham
Plan of attack
Luke McGee’s analysis in “Hard right, soft soap” (TNE #406) of how to deal with populists is absolutely correct.
The long-term answer is better education (we get the electorate we educate), but that does not address the short term. And I have yet to see any good solution to the short term – there is a gap in the toolkit. Just saying “we need to find ways” is not the answer, though it is always a good start.
My own best attempt is that we should not give any ground in these culture wars, but instead go on the attack. For some reason that is seldom put forwards as a tactic, and I think that is a mistake.
David Sharman
People like Giorgia Meloni have been democratically elected and many believe that she has taken a much more collaborative approach than was anticipated – because to have credibility she has had to.
Uncontrolled immigration is a real thing and a huge concern for many people. I think a great danger for politics and our futures is the demonisation of such people (with these concerns).
Brian Menzies
Horror Tories
Contemplating the rogues’ gallery of leadership hopefuls which accompanied “The Tories’ dodgy migrant maths” (TNE #406), I pondered on which candidate might lose them the most votes at the next election.
Jenrick – as much charisma as a rampant slug. Cleverly – rarely clever. Badenoch – bad enough already. Tugendhat – the iron man with the rubber backbone.
The big question – which one will be a Pointless answer in years to come?
Ken Daly
I have a very easy mental exercise to help me deal with Mr Jenrick: I make anagrams out of the name of his constituency (Newark).
Iain Noble
Israel’s Gaza blind spot
I was disappointed to read in Tanit Koch’s “A battle for the soul of Israel” (TNE #405) that Israelis believe Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip “could have turned Gaza into a new Singapore, with all the money flowing in – why didn’t they?”
They are missing the point that, according to UNRWA, 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents are refugees from what is now Israel. Either they or their parents or grandparents were the victims of expulsion or fled their homes in fear at various times since 1948 – and they want to return to their land.
When they say this, Israelis are telling the victims of ethnic cleansing to live crammed into an area 25 miles long and, at its widest, 7.5 miles wide. These same Israelis are then living on the land, which belonged to the refugees and, presumably, they can’t understand why the Palestinians are so angry.
Israelis can ask why didn’t Palestinians turn Gaza “into a new Singapore” but we should also ask why doesn’t Israel become a democratic state instead of the settler-colonial state it is? When will Israel stop building illegal settlements on occupied land and withdraw from that land? And what is Israel and the rest of the world going to do as it moves towards becoming an ethno-religious state?
Phil McEhinney, London
No time to play games
In TNE #405, Paul Mason argues that with the rules-based order falling apart, “Europe has to innovate or die” – to become “one of three key players in the new Great Game, or to become the chessboard for the century’s defining conflict between America and China”.
He says Europe’s (and the UK’s) future depends on a common industrial strategy, coordinated net zero plans and deregulating business.
Europe (and the world – think without borders!) need ethical development: yes, net zero, but also universal human rights. That needs better regulated business.
Climate breakdown or war could cause our extinction. We should strive to avoid getting into a new Great Game or a defining conflict.
Roland Lazarus, Billericay, Essex
Retire lazy assumptions
I buy the New European because I believe it to uphold reason, moderation and objectivity. It is therefore disappointing to find in it the following sentence in Jonty Bloom’s “Labour’s biggest challenge” (TNE #405), “pensioners scream blue murder if you ever try to reduce their benefits, or heaven forfend, tax them.”
What is the factual basis for this assertion? No one knows the probable proportion of them who think that pensions should be more fairly distributed or who believe that children and young people require at least as great a share of resources.
Lumping people arbitrarily in groups for condemnation is one of the causes of current tensions in society. It should have no place in this unique publication.
Dorothy Woolley, Newark on Trent
Three for the price of one
There is an old and little-used Yorkshire saying used to admonish know-alls. It goes thus; “he knows too much for one man and not enough for two”. I often think of this when reading Peter Trudgill’s column and how he confounds the mantra.
I am in awe of Trudgill’s learning and concede he may even know enough for three!
David Handley, Skipton, Glorious Yorkshire
BELOW THE LINE
Comments, conversation and correspondence from our online subscribers
Some good points were made in “What sank the MS Estonia?” (TNE #406) and a new investigation might help in apportioning blame. But surely it is unclear what further lessons to improve ship safety and the safety of those on board, passengers or crew can now be learned.
Investigation lessons around bow door safety have been implemented and ferries are safer today. Collisions will always happen and the vast majority will involve one or more surface ships rather than submarines.
And, of course, with submarine collisions, actual or suspect, the quality of the shipboard crew training will have little impact when the collision occurs underwater.
Peter Kidman
What made the Swedish government change its mind so quickly about investigating the disaster? At first they were determined to raise the wreck, and the bodies, and find out what happened. Then they suddenly decided to bury it. Right away I am suspicious that there is something they don’t want people to know.
RS Prior
Marie Le Conte on party conferences (TNE #406) rang some bells. As a Baptist minister, I initially looked forward to our annual assembly. Anyone could get their 15 minutes of fame, by proposing an amendment to anything on the agenda – I did that a few times. But later, like Marie, I wondered, “What does any of this mean, out there in the real world?” I didn’t go for the last few years before retiring, and I don’t miss it now.
Tony Jones
Re: “Kamala needs a Joe.. and it isn’t Biden” (TNE #406). Some American friends still see this election being between Democrats and Republicans rather than democracy vs authoritarianism. It can still go either way and there’s the very real possibility that the Harris campaign starts to believe its own hype.
Stuart Shingler
“All of us strangers” (TNE #406), Jason Solomons’ piece on The Outrun, was good article about a truly great film. I loved how they used the Orkney landscape and the sea to show different emotions.
Saoirse Ronan’s performance is very powerful and she demonstrates the vulnerability and strength of Rona in all its complexities.
Sarah Lea
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