Sir, – Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-left views do not resonate well with those of the British public.
Considering his fundamental differences with the Blairites in his party, I find it hard to imagine how a Corbyn-led Labour Party could ever win a general election. – Yours, etc,
CIAN BYRNE,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – In your editorial ("Labour enters uncharted waters", September 14th), you refer to the Scottish National Party as one of the beneficiaries of populist politics.
The SNP has been rising steadily in Scottish politics since the 1960s, when it was derided as a quaint oddity. In the intervening time, it has built – slowly, doggedly and persistently – its electoral base as the economic and political divisions within Britain have crystallised into ever more distinct cultural forms, with more that divides them than keeps them together.
Mr Corbyn may slow that process down as he tries to formulate an economic vision and policy that resonate with an electorate outside the southeast of England; in doing so, he is going to have to draw on all the intellectual resources of Europe and the rest of the developed world – an economic policy that combines growth and downward redistribution and reverses the upward torrent of wealth of the last two generations.
I doubt if anybody takes Mr Corbyn’s electoral prospects seriously, but if he opens up the ground for a new economic analysis and language, as the neoliberals did in the 1970s, his election will be of real importance.
It is very sad that the Irish Labour Party will not be around to make anything of it. – Yours, etc,
EOIN DILLON,
Dublin 8.