Letters to the Editor – week ending 15th February 2026

Read what people have been writing to our editor about this week. Find out how to share your own views here.

A Tibbitt of what you fancy does you good

I can’t describe the effect that James’s prelude to his article on Gorton and Denton had on me. I have been a member of the LP for over 50 years but lately have been hanging on in there by a thread. I somehow can’t seem to leave.

His article brought back elements of why I became not just a member but active. I am still unhappy with much in the leadership and hope this scare brings positive changes in making our party the broad church it should be. We need a leadership which can give hope and reassurance to many of our people who are really suffering at present.  Communication is needed and we don’t have that at present. I am hoping to experience it in Gorton and Denton.

After being filled with trepidation about going to help in Gorton and Denton on Saturday, I feel a little hope.

Julie Ashton

*****

Hello Labour List, 

This email is to express my joy at how politically powerful I think this piece by James Tibbitts is. Well done James and whilst I am disabled and cannot join you in Manchester, your piece retains my real faith in the Party up North. Thank you.

Good luck for the Gorton & Denton by election.

And I’ll will most definitely be making a donation to LabourList.

Sharon Holder

*****

Class is in session

Unfortunately, experience of working class hardship does not necessarily mean that you draw the right political conclusions – still less equip you to produce a strategy for achieving greater social equality. Starmer’s repetition of his working class background has clearly not cut through even with those who share it and now it will simply fall on deaf ears. Does he grasp the political and cultural reset the party requires if it is to survive in government?

David Parker

*****

James Tibbitts comments on his trip to the constituency by-election. He says that people on the doorstep were disappointed with Labour.They were promised change (for the better!) but it has not happened.

It seems that Keir Starmer needs to set aside his caution and deliver. The ‘class divide’ is not the only issue that needs attention from him.

Most of the Labour party, the Unions and public want electoral reform. Now is the time to set it in motion, no more Commissions or Reviews!

We need a fairer, proportional system, or we’ll end up with Reform UK. If no action is taken, Reform could be the largest party in the next government.

People need to feel that every vote counts, which 70% currently do not. Also, large party donations from billionaires stifle democracy to its cost.

David Murray

*****

Mor-gone but not forgotten

Excellent ‘editorial‘ today! I don’t always agree with them (tho’ they’re always thought-provoking), but today’s is masterly. Thank you.

Tony Bryer      

*****

Dear Labour List,

First, may I thank you for your daily coverage of all things Labour? I find it useful, insightful and thought provoking.

I’m pretty much just a reliable leaflet deliverer nowadays, but I have been a Cabinet Member in Birmingham and a Regional Communications Officer during the Miliband-led general election effort, as well as one of the Corbyn general elections.

I should also say that I do not belong to any of the factions, which confuses those who do. Sometimes, I agree with them, sometimes I don’t. If only they properly understood that my views are shaped by my life experience as an adult queer man, but that’s something the Labour Party has always struggled with. A topic for another day…

My purpose in writing today is to challenge the myth that it was McSweeney’s strategy that won the GE. I know him slightly and have no particular axe to grind, but there was no strategic genius.

Labour did not win the GE; the Tories lost. In a perfect storm of Conservative collapse and Reform insurgence, the right divided and we reaped the benefit of the first past the post electoral system. It frustrates the living daylights out of me that we have bought into the false narrative that we won anything. It obscures the fragility of our mandate and breeds complacency. We need to face up to the reality that we were merely the least worst option.

The upside is that we acquired a thumping parliamentary majority and five years to do something with it. We are still in the foothills of what could be transformational change, but what we do not have yet is substance and a vision that is understood by the country. This should be our priority as a party.

I’m hopeful that the cast changes at Number 10 will bring fresh perspective, and I implore those who take on new responsibilities to understand that we have unfinished business in persuading the electorate that we’re fit to govern (and please don’t get me started on the unforced errors of judgement that paint a sorry picture of individual probity; you might like to run a feature on the Nolan Principles for Dummies).

We live in a country where poor people live ten years less than rich people, and the quality of the lives that precede those early deaths is a miserable story. If that’s not a mission we can all rally around, what is?

Kind Regards

Steve Bedser

*****

Wither Wales?

Eluned was wrong to show such compliance to the Westminster Government. 

Devolved Regions need to work together to emancipate our democratic socialism from the central State at Westminster where it is obvious that the Government

is scared of diversity of economic policies despite the opportunities regionalism offers for fresh approaches for public income generation. 

For example, the Freeport policy for instance, will make Wales a low income, low growth and poor service economy dominated by foreign international investors on tax breaks 

for the next two decades or more. 

Wales needs new local economic initiatives home grown by our Universities, not hand me down Tory policies in support of importing cheap slave labour made goods.

Labour should stop subsidising foreign owned new capital projects and privatised utilities, instead we need the Government to invest by demanding an equivalent value in shares in return 

for the Free Port tax breaks, subsidies and land deals.

An annual dividend and control of excessive profiteering would be a worthy return. It is called State Capitalism and I understand that many governments benefit from it.

Terry w Scales

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