YP Letters: Labour can only win from centre ground

I READ Tom Richmond’s column (The Yorkshire Post, May 9) and thought “Oh how true!”

If the Tories win the election on June 8 – which I think highly likely – it might just convince Jeremy Corbyn that he’s got to go and make way for someone more moderate in the party for Labour to stand a chance.

It spent 18 years in opposition due to being way to the left of where most of the electorate were and only got re-elected because it reclaimed the centre ground which, in the late 1990s, was crowded space because the Tories and Lib Dems were also there. What baffles me is the party’s inability to learn the lessons of history.

From: Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley.

WILL Britain’s centrists follow Macron’s example and now march to rescue of politics? The answer is simple Tom Richmond – just look over your shoulder, the centre party in the UK is led by Theresa May much to the chagrin of proper traditional Conservatives in our country.

There is a political void in the UK, there is no longer a moderate right wing political party to support, Ukip do not fill the void so the Tories are busy chasing Labour’s traditional vote.

Margaret Thatcher’s era marked the climax of genuine Conservatism in the UK. Before then I had had joined her party in 1972, to become the youngest Tory councillor on Bradford Metropolitian Council in May 1973. Politically times were wonderful, but fifth columnists in the party were set to stab our great leader in the back, led by that arch-villain and very liberal Michael Heseltine and his relatively left-wing cohorts, who did more damage to the Conservative Party than Labour ever did.

Let us get matters into proper perspective, Emmanuel Macron is copying May, so please do not put the cart before the horse!

From: S Foster, Fulford Road, York.

THOSE UK MEPs who hoped that we were locked into the EU may find that their pensions, clearly the responsibility of Brussels, are under threat.

If so, it would be ludicrous to think that UK taxpayers should pay for pensions of the MEPs who despised our aspirations for return of self-government.

After years enjoying lucrative MEP salaries and expense accounts, they may find their snouts in an empty trough.

I recall the MEP Richard Corbett on TV explaining that we were locked into the EU and that Eurosceptics must just get on with it.

The time may come to return that advice.

From: John Turley, Dronfield Woodhouse.

THE arrogance of the Brexiteers would appear to know no bounds in their letters (The Yorkshire Post, May 8).

Messrs Hunter and Lacey suggest that ‘Remainers’ should no longer be allowed to challenge them, and that they are lucky not to be living under a former Eastern European regime where dissent would not be allowed.

It’s ironic that they quoted Turkey’s supposed imminent membership of the EU as one of the reasons to vote ‘Leave’, but they now appear to want to follow in President Erdogan’s footsteps by clamping down on opponents, having won a referendum by a similar margin.

What could be more democratic than the British people having a final say on the eventual Brexit deal, other than the fear of the Brexiteers that they might not win this time?

From: John Riseley, Harrogate.

THERESA May’s reported intention of retaining the pledge to cut migration is most welcome; without it Brexit would be pointless. Keeping the promise this time would be good.

To achieve this, the Conservatives need to reinterpret their position as the party of business. There have long been enterprising business people who can find a way to turn a profit given a sufficient supply of workers, whether this is obtained through slavery, transported convicts, indentured labourers or the free movement of people. They naturally see it as the proper role of government to facilitate this and the Conservative instinct is to oblige them.

This is compounded by the conventional wisdom that we have a general and chronic shortage of employment, and so need constantly to stimulate demand for labour.

Healthy businesses need to be able to compete not only for customers but also for workers. When they require these from abroad, they should be energetic enough to set up branches there, rather than expecting people to be resettled here and subsidised by the state.

From: G Cooper, Barlow, Dronfield.

THERESA May promises to bring down immigration, to do something about gas and electricity prices, and generally to make this a country we’re all happy to live in.

Since the Teletubbies could currently give Labour a run for its money, I see no reason to question whether Mrs May means what she says. After all, if she’s obviously going to win by miles, why make rash promises?

We need a tough cookie to halt these foreign bullies, so for the first time in about 60 years, I’m going to vote Conservative.

However, if after winning, Mrs May “chickens” and agrees to Europe’s absurd conditions, and we then find that the NHS continues to struggle, that “our” police still don’t respond and our schools still turn out feral, ignorant kids, then Mrs May will find herself trying to govern the ungovernable.

From: Keith Jowett, Silkstone Common, Barnsley,

LISTENING to campaigning politicians, I find myself puzzled, not by which party I should vote for, but rather asking whether I am one of the ‘real people’ they all seem to wish to meet.

If I am not a real person am I unreal, non-real or even perhaps surreal? Being retired, I am probably not one of the real working people they so frequently refer to.