Letters to the Canary: Gary Lineker, how to spot a Tory, and the Labour Party (yet again)

The Canary is excited to share the latest edition of our letters page. This is where we publish people’s responses to the news, politics, or anything else they want to get off their chest. We’ve now opened the letters page up so anyone can submit a contribution. As always, if you’d like to subscribe to the Canary – starting from just £1 a month – to continue to support truly radical and independent media, then you can do that here:

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This week’s letters

This week we have some thoughts on previous letters from readers regarding the Labour Party – reminder that the Canary said we wouldn’t be talking about this any more – musings on Gary Lineker’s 1930s Germany reference, and a poem about how to spot a Tory. 

Can we join the ‘Truth Party‘?

Much as I hate the Tory government, I am dreading the thought of a Labour landslide next year. So may I add to the comments made by Eileen and Kris in their letters?

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The first thing Labour did in 1997 was to take £5bn a year from our pensions by changing the tax system – a change that was in large part responsible for the pension problems a few years later. Many people lost the pensions that they had worked decades for.

In their manifesto they promised to reform the House of Lords – a change that the Commons had voted for in 1911! But we still have an unelected House of Lords. Then there was their support for Proportional Representation. When the LibDems obtained a referendum on the issue, Labour said they would only support the ridiculous alternative vote system. But then they didn’t support the campaign to change the voting system. Another reform lost.

Remember 2008? Our GDP was £1,541bn in that year. The Labour government gave the Banks £945bn to bail them out, because they’d been gambling on the money markets and lost. Not exactly looking after the workers were they?

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I love Kris’s ‘Truth Party’. Can you ask him to send me an application form please?
[Ed. – No we can’t, but you might ask David Palmer, who wrote the letter you’re referring to!]

Barry Cash, via email

A response to “Starmer: Mission Implausible“

Congratulations to Mike Cushman who wrote on the above subject. In particular he said:

“The problems facing people in Britain are in large part problems of poverty and inequality. Not dealing with these beyond some vague notion of doing Gove-esque levelling-up better is gross dereliction. Inequality in Britain is structural, not an aberration, and a programme for government must have this at its core.”

I take his use of the word ‘structural’ in two ways. First is the fairytale of neoliberal economics which is not supported either by the evidence, or the bulk of academic economists. Secondly on the fact that British political leaders are not being held to account and are motivated primarily by greed, self conceit, and the lust for power. We need a proper constitution including a fair voting system, but there is no sign that those in power will concede that. Voters must be taught to be wary of accepting our leaders on their own valuation, or that of the mainstream media.

David H Smith

Don’t say Nazi: it’s offensive

Apparently it is offensive to use the word “Nazi” to describe the violently and virulently racist anti-refugee policies of this Government. Note that this is a Government which has already via policy arranged the deaths of at least 450,000 disabled & elderly people.

We could’ve already called out that genocide. But sadly it is far too offensive to middle England, who are already carefully ignoring the longstanding cultural genocide by the British State against the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) communities of this country too.

What if they were to knock the table with their jangly knees? They’re just not used to such honesty.

And their knees are much more important than suffering imposed by the State.

Yet not too offensive for middle England are the millions of children in poverty going hungry (in schools and out).

Nor too offensive are the elderly being forced onto buses to find heat. This in a country with enough riches for footballers to be millionaires… from their second careers.

Nor is any offense (or even suspicion) to be found in watching the tired cold limbs of the totally-not-trafficked men go to work washing cars for a mysteriously low, low price.

Perhaps Brian Blessed could be persuaded to lead an expedition – he could lead a motley crew over the mountain of misery. Middle England loves him, right?

But of course the taming of public discourse is nothing new. What we seemingly must learn, however, is that remaining tame is remaining caged. Respectability politics is a prison – and not the only kind I’d love to see abolished.

John Urquhart, general secretary, Harmony Party UK – via email

How to spot a Tory: a poem

When someone walks by
with a pompous look in their eye, that’s a Tory
When you can tell from their stride
they think the sun shines from their backside, that’s a Tory

When they’re comfortably off
while the poorest they scoff, that’s a Tory
When in a crisis they see fit
to turn a shameless profit, that’s a Tory

When they put themselves first
and think compassion’s the worst, that’s a Tory
When their whole philosophy
is that it’s all about me, that’s a Tory

When they’re routinely lying
and care not about the dying, that’s a Tory
When they’re always shapeshifting
and say foodbanks are uplifting, that’s a Tory

When they give contracts to their mates
and cut workers’ pay rates, that’s a Tory
When they abuse the honours system
for the benefit of them, that’s a Tory

When at refugees they sneer
and say “You’re not welcome here”, that’s a Tory
When the public sector they despise
and their dogma is to privatise, that’s a Tory

When they’re mired in sleaze
while they put sewage in our seas, that’s a Tory
When our citizenship they can withdraw
and they break international law, that’s a Tory

When they cry if you diss ‘em
and say you wouldn’t want to kiss ‘em, that’s a Tory
But who in their right mind could abide
being with someone as ugly inside… as a Tory?

Dave Peck, via email

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