Response to the riots

Letter to Editor of "i" Anne MCElvoy describes in her article "After the honeymoon, Labour faces reality" (i 05.08.2024) the options for the new government in facing down the riots. The government is right to talk tough to the rioters and challenge the social media giants over harvesting misinformation and hate. However, a number of my friends and work colleagues still express some understanding for what they think motivates the rioters, following the abject failings of the previous government on illegal migrants and the more recent abandonment of the ill fated Rwanda scheme. That is why this is a good moment for the Prime Minister to reassure them by reiterating once again the new government's plans for the Border Force, the cooperation with the EU and the proposed increase in immigration staff to vet the asylum seekers. Yours faithfully, Wiktor Moszczynski

There is a progressive majority of UK voters

To Editor of The Observer Dear Sirs, I would not like to share the pessimism of Robert Ford's otherwise careful analysis of the 2024 election results ("Labour risked heartland seats to target marginals. It paid off - but there's a cost". Observer 07/07/24). It is true that Labour's vote share was spread thin and was under 34%, up just 2 points on their disastrous 2019 defeat. However, Labour is part of a family of progressive parties (Labour, Lib-Dem, Green, Plaid Cymru), who between them managed to secure at least 55% of the vote. For the most part these parties survived the election campaign without attacking each other and the minor parties present themselves as the "conscience of Labour" ready to give Labour courage in carrying out its programme. To the Daily Express they may appear like a woke coalition, Even if the Tories and Reform were to combine forces, the progressive parties would unite against them, and the new right would remain a minority, both in the number of seats and in proportion of the national vote. Yours faithfully, Wiktor Moszczynski

Release women prisoners

To Editor of i Dear Sirs, There is a much better short term solution for new Justice Minister, Shabana Mahmood, than being forced to "instigate a radical one-in, one-out emergency policy" ("i" 06.07.24) to tackle the Tories' prison overcrowding. There is a rising figure, currently over 3000, of women imprisoned in three separate jails. These are mostly mothers, wives, or single family breadwinners, whose punishment impacts even more on their children. 58% of prison sentences in 2022 were for less than six months duration. Why not a massive early release for women with non-violent offences, which could close at least one of the womens' prisons and convert it to a new jail for the new intake of male offenders. Yours faithfully, Wiktor Moszczynski

Will Starmer win that landslide?

- It seems such a generally accepted assumption that Keir Starmer will win a well deserved landslide for Labour. Simply put, the fact that Labour could actually win at all, after the massacre of the Brexit Tory landslide in 2019, seemed inconceivable just 3 years ago. Nevertheless, like Neil Kinnock before him after the 1984 disater, Keir Starmer managed to reform the party, stimulate the troops who were hungry for success, and has now brought the party to the brink of victory. However, for Kinnock, that was as far as he could take it. Personally, Kinnock failed and needed to give way to a new leader in 1992 to get the party over the line. This finally happened with Tony Blair as leader in 1997. Which path will Starmer follow? - It does not help that the election has largely been so dull that it has not yet even now impacted on public awareness in day to day activities. Where are the window bills, leaflets handed out in the street, loudspaker events in each constituency? Where is the buzz? It has all gravitated to social media, online propaganda, TikTok messages and TV debates. Unlike Blair, Starmer's personality has not yet lit up the election. Many will decide how to vote as they walk to their polling station. - Could Starmer end up like Kinnock, fallen at the last ditch? In the last days the doubts and the shy Tory factor have been at work. There is still a massive apathy among non-committed voters based largely on which party they dislike or distrust most. Actually, I am sure Starmer will be Prime Minister by Friday, in time for that precious evening with his family. It seems impossibe now with such a visible steady 20% gap maintained for over a year, and only now slightly shrinking, to be wrong. The humiliation of the Tories at the hands, not only of Labour, but the Lib Dems and Reform as well, is a given. However, Starmer, a steadfast, honest and competent person, still does not convince the average floating voter. Yes, the remains of the Labout tribal vote will be out for him, but, even there, former Corbyn Labour voters are slipping away to vote for the Greems, the Lib Dems and for Muslim independents. For Starmer has remained too buttoned up and stressed, too anxious not to lose the family silver in the debate, to really display his vision and his passion to lead the party and the country to victory. - In the end, he will make it, there will be a majority, the Tories and SNP will be humiliated, the Lib Dems may vie with the Tories to take on the mantle of the official Opposition. Yet Starmer's majority may not be as great as some are dreaming. Perhaps a 75 to 100 seat majority? The Daily Telegraph is predicting a majority of 159 seats, but that is deliberate scaremongering to raise the Tory vote. - Perhaps, it woulld be just as well for the majority not to be too large. The oven-ready government programme which will form the main part of the King's Speech, will cover the major first steps announced by Starmer, and will be carried through with discipline and aplomb. But if the majority is too large Starmer and McFadden will not be able to control the restless opinionated and relatively young idealistic backbenchers. After 2 years, if growth fails to materialize, conflicts and even Labour splits may arise. The Tories will be too marginal as an opposition, and the Lib-Dems too soft. (After all, not a word of criticism of each other passed throught the lips of Labour and Lib Dem leaders during the election debates, though the two may end up in serious conflict over protests against housing developments once Labour has simplified the promised new planning laws.) The real opposition could come from Reform, if it does take over the Conservative Party, and they can stage a real populist revolt. It all depends on whether Farage will get his public platform by winning in Clacton. Labour should be shoring up the Conservative vote there. In these circumstances Labour could end up in trouble by the end of the next term. - The Labour domestic green agenda will proceed successfully as long as there is the growth that Starmer is relying on. But here is the problem. There can be no successful improvements in services unless economic growth can fund them. Relying on energy companies and pensions for financial windfall support will not be enough. Growth must come over the next 2 years. But how can Britain expect growth with the threat to Europe from Russia continuing, the brutality of the Gaza war, the growing right-wing radicalization in western and eastern Europe, and the chaos likely to emanate from the USA after a broken Biden has surrendered to Trump. Let us remember too that Trump is protected now by his immunity to prosecution, as a result of the recent Supreme Court ruling. Only Biden can save the day here by retiring immediately to let younger democrats challenge Trump, but can he do that? Out of Starmer's control, unfortunately. He also needs good relations with these more difficult neighbours to find better solutions to illegal migration and the gnawing boat problems. I am counting too on good relations with the liberal governments in Germany and Poland. - So, yes, Labour can get their decent majority on Thursday, if not a bruising landslide, but they face a very bumpy road ahead, trying to provide the steady reform they promised in a chaotic hostile world. I wish them a successful decade in office.

No Seats for Reform

to Editor of i Dear Editor, It is precisely because (as Kitty Donaldson puts it yesterday's "i") "Farage's long shadow is eclipsing the Tory party", that Labour and Liberal-Democrat activists should size up their strategy in constituencies, like Clacton, where they are unlikely to win and Reform could take the seat from the Conservatives. Indeed, a resilient Farage on the national stage, who can toss around false promises in his contract manifesto with gay abandon, would be a much more dangerous adversary for Labour in the difficult months to come than the Tory rump, and that is precisely why in those constituencies, both the Labour and Lib-Dem electorate should be encouraged to support the local Tory and deny Reform a place in parliament. Yours faithfully, Wiktor Moszczysnki,

Free Marwan Barghouti

I have for some time hoped that the charismatic Marwan Barghouti could in some middle distant future be released from jail and become the new Nelson Mandela who could be able to bring about a political solution and eventually peace to Palestine. This view has been reinforced by your article "Abuse of jailed Palestinian leader Barghouti amounts to torture" in The Observer" on May 19th. and it is time that Britain's political leadership should seek to make representations on his behalf to the current less belligerent members of the Israeli government. Barghouti is not a member of Hamas, but enjoys the support of so many of his people, whether Fatah, Hamas or politically uncommitted. The Israelis consider him a terrorist, but Mandela was also condemned as a terrorist in his day, and Yasser Arafat's crimes did not prevent Israel from making a deal with him subsequently. The crazed Netanyahu/Hamas blood bath must stop and it is time for adults like Marwan Barghouti and Benny Gantz to take over.

Yours faithfully,

Wiktor Moszczynski

Letter sent to the Editor of The Observer

Draft Federation Letter to Israeli Ambassador on Damian Sobol

 

To Ambassador Jakov Livne,

Israeli Embassy

Ul. Ludwika Krzywickiego 24,

02-078 Warszawa,

Poland

Thursday, 4th April 2024

Dear Mr Ambassador,

The Polish community in the UK was horrified by the massacre of Israeli citizens on October 7th by

Hamas terrorists last year, and has always believed in the right of the state of Israel to exist and

to defend itself.

However, that outrage cannot justify in any way the deliberate targeting and killing this week in

three separate vehicles of 7 foreign aid workers from the charity organization World Central

Kitchen. In particular, the Polish community was shocked that one of the innocent victims of these

three separate attacks was an experienced Polish aid worker Damian Soból, who had previously

worked as a volunteer aid worker in Ukraine and Turkey, and equally shocked at the news

of British victims of this attack, John Chapman, James Henderson, and James Kirby. Their only

motivation for their presence in Gaza was to help the victims of famine and disaster. Even though

the Israeli Prime Minister has admitted that the Israeli Defence Force caused these attacks,

neither he, nor the Israeli Ambassador in Poland, have apologized fully for these deaths, and the

latter has caused further outrage to the people of Poland and to the Polish community in the UK

by using this incident as an opportunity to enter a polemic about alleged antisemitism in Poland.

We believe that the Israeli government should issue a public apology for this incident, as well as

conduct a full investigation to establish who was personally responsible for this decision, while the

families of these 7 victims should be fully compensated by the Israeli government.

We further believe that the possibility of further such deaths of innocent victims can only be

prevented by the government of Israel responding positively to calls from Israel’s friends and

allies for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza.

Yours faithfully,

Alicja Donimirska

Chair of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain

cc to Israeli Ambassador in London

Draft of Federation letter to Keir Starmer on EU citizens

 

Dear Sir Keir,

 

As the umbrella body for the main Polish organizations in the UK since 1947 we strongly urge you to announce that a future UK government led by yourself would offer default UK citizenship to all Polish and other EU citizens living in the UK with settled status. We believe that you could also eventually extend this to those with pre-settled status as soon as their 5 year temporary status expires. You would be right to think that this would reassure them of their continued further integration into the UK economy and into the social and cultural fabric of this country. It would also fulfil the promise made by those campaigning to leave the EU in 2016 that the security of EU citizens living in this country would be assured.

While we have strongly supported the recent campaign by the3million and others to extend voting rights in parliamentary elections to those EU citizens with settled status, yet this proposal has not yet been adopted by either of the main political parties. Consequently, more than 4 million UK taxpayers with EU citizenship remain without parliamentary representation in this country. We feel that their chance to have automatic access to UK citizenship, despite the inevitable initial fee, would resolve in a more straightforward way the issue of their current disenfranchisement. Parliamentary voting rights for EU citizens as EU citizens, would require introducing a constitutional change, but this would not be true of a decision to extend UK citizenship to them. Currently, while they are valuable stakeholders in British society and the British economy, they are still living at the whim of possible Home Office reinterpretations of their status, similar to that faced by the Windrush generation. They live with the status of “immigrant” which makes them feel vulnerable each time the issue of immigration arises in public debate. 

At least 1.138 million Polish nationals in this country have applied successfully for either settled or pre-settled status and have long been making a valuable contribution to this country. It would be advantageous for a future UK government to cement that positive achievement with the unconditional offer of UK citizenship. We look forward to your confirmation that you would want to  proceed with this generous but sensible proposal.

Yours sincerely