Post Election Options for Labour

Dear Editor,

As Labour leaders peer out from under the rubble in the former Labour heartlands in England and Scotland they should be aware that the blue collar vote in England is increasingly suspicious that Labour is too fine tuned towards the rights of selected minorities and insufficiently proud of its English heritage. In Scotland it is failing to ride the tide of Scottish national pride. It is also losing votes to more radical Green alternatives. Furthermore Boris Johnson is likely to first mock and then steal any popular policies they may bring forward. 

Labour must lay more stress now on the issues of protecting workers and pensioners' rights following Brexit, make strategic transport, water and energy utilities publicly owned, and pronounce more imaginative green policies. It must  promise to retain the break with the EU for the foreseeable future, but seek to renegotiate the customs union. This is vital to renew EU/UK trade arrangements  and to solve the current Northern ireland border conundrum. 

Also in the case of Scotland, Keir Starmer should promise the Scottish voter that a Labour government would grant an independence referendum, but not earlier than in 2030 when the impact of Brexit, good and bad, can be fairly assessed.

Yours faithfully

Wiktor Moszczynski

Sent to The Times

In place of amnesty in N Ireland

 

Dear Editor,

I can understand the torment that relatives and friends feel over lack of justice for innocent victims of the Troubles and the difficulty for the UK government in having to face continuous litigation over the possibly criminal behaviour by British soldiers in the Northern Ireland Troubles (Politicians condemn troubles amnesty i 07/05/21). 

Surely much of the air could be cleared and some closure offered for victims' loved ones, if the UK introduced a Truth and Reconciliation Court that could hear freely volunteered evidence from British soldiers, and from loyalist and republican former fighters, without  fear of facing criminal proceedings. 

This worked so well in South Africa after the end of apartheid. It would help considerably in healing the untreated  open wounds of anger and distrust that still threaten to undermine the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

Yours faithfully,

Wiktor Moszczynski

Sent to i