Letters to the Editor – week ending 15 March 2026

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

Build, Baby, Build (Council houses)

What a brilliant “clear as daylight”article by Margaret Mullane MP about the need to get building social housing. Her three points are well made. Social housing is not a ‘benefit’ in the social security sense of those words, but I fear has been stigmatised for years in our class-conscious society and has been put into the ‘benefit’ category. The present housing crisis proves that those people on an average wage, carrying out tasks most of us totally depend on cannot afford the ever rising cost of being able to live in a decent house or flat.     

How though is this government going to start building on the scale required? It’s got to be good quality housing that will last. Do we have the skilled workforce required for such a programme? Are there/businesses/people able to design imaginative new ways of building to the scale required and are they ready to go? How far advanced is the allocation of precious land? Are we building factories that can make all the parts of a decent house and get them installed on site in a reasonable time? Are the utilities on board as part of this planning?

I hear about bits and pieces happening but is it enough?

Veronica Ward

*****

Real Labour: Not a united response…

How often have I heard we need real Labour. I get tired of hearing this, because it only leads to a loss of power.

We have a great Labour PM. Who in Unite started this nonsense?

Bruce Shepherd
(Labour Party member)

*****

Unite are doing the right thing, the Labour party needs to wake up it isn’t the rich shareholders that cast their votes for Labour, it’s the workers and the pensioners. Stammer get yourself in the real world. Lose the next election and the party is gone for good. For God’s sake wake up.

Stuart Exelby

*****

Those whom the gods wish to destroy first they make mad and Unite’s decision to slash £580 millions of funds to the Labour Party is a pure act of madness. The very opponents of Labour will be the beneficiaries.

Tim Lyle 

*****

Dear Editor,

It’s high time Labour recognised who they were founded to represent in the first place – the clue is in the name – the LABOUR movement. Yet you could be forgiven for thinking they are acting like any other neo-liberal party. First, under Ramsay McDonald, they ignored Clause IV, then Blair did away with it altogether. Now Starmer has suspended or expelled many of those on the left. 

The treatment of the Birmingham bin workers, for me as a Labour voter AND a Unite member, signifies the end for me. We have the grotesque chaos of a LABOUR council – a LABOUR council – scuttling around the city cutting wages and jobs of its own workforce. I will vote for disaffiliation if it comes to it.

Thank you,

Chris Robinson

*****

Dear Editor

Like so many others who have fought for decades to preserve the rights of those workers with protection and those without, as a union representative I saw the benefits and hope that a good union and representative could provide to the workers. I am heartened and delighted that the union now has a GS that will stand on her principles and openly challenge a system that has been one-sided for longer than we expected.

The labour movement had the greatest opportunity to unravel and level up the playing field. Unfortunately the world of unions, politics and commerce have become usurped by individuals.

There is still hope but the unions do not need to go cap in hand to those who only want to frustrate and keep people down and out.

There has to be a re-visiting of community engagement and an evangelical renewal that the churches have been so successful in carrying out and the churches numbers are growing on a daily basis and a lot are from the young which is absolutely imperative to sustain the future of the organisation.

Labour unfortunately have not been hungry enough and are far removed from those who they claim to represent

The party needs a complete overhaul.

Frank Shepard

*****

As a trade unionist of many years’ standing, I’m afraid I take a dim view of some of UNITE’ recent strategies.

The Birmingham bin strikes have been a disaster for the city. This could have been a golden opportunity for UNITE to make themselves the heroes and accept the Council’s invitation to propose a workable solution, but both sides have slipped into entrenchment.

This entrenchment is likely to cost Labour the leadership of Birmingham City Council in the May local elections, as disgruntled residents will be inclined to protest vote. Judging by the barrages of flags in some parts of Birmingham, this could give Reform a foot in the door, and we have already seen the disastrous impact they have had on some councils.

I cannot help but think that UNITE is too busy trying to give Starmer a bloody nose without considering the wider consequences.

Yours sincerely 

Kym Smith 

*****

Councils are responsible for spending the monies they have in the most effective and efficient manner; that is the starting point.

There should be a general policy directive to officers that the City Council seeks to minimise or eliminate all agency employees. If this is not in place, then Councillors are failing in their duty to residents.There may be limited exceptions to such a directive, due to short-term peaks or long-term absences.

The fact that there are c.500 agency employees, that represents more than 40% of a total workforce of 1200, indicates that the Council has failed in its duties.

So, I would suggest that either the work is taken wholly in-house or it is wholly sub-contacted, but such a “mix” cannot represent good value for money.

Cllr Ramsay Ross
Leader of the Labour Group
Rutland County Council

*****

In my opinion, as the Unite General Secretary said already, it is Fire and Rehire by any other name! If Birmingham City Council gets their way, other Councils will be emboldened to do the same with their workforces. This Labour Government shouldn’t have allowed Agency Workers to undermine the Strike, all at a greater cost than it would have taken to settle this dispute. 

The Labour Government has sat on its hands for too long. Labour needs to start biting with teeth, the new employment rights bill brings workers at the sharp end. 

Sending my solidarity to the striking Bin Workers in Birmingham.  

Regards, Simon Ford.

PS: I presume the Unite ‘s Trade Union generous Strike Pay is helping to keep the workforce on the Picket Lines. Another good reason to join a Trade Union! 

*****

Peers and PR

Your article on the removal of Hereditary Peers urges the government to go further in modernising the way we do politics in the UK.

The most obvious challenge lies in the voting system for parliament. First Past the Post worked well in a two party system when voters expected to get either a Labour or Tory government. Today, in a multi party world they have little idea of the result.

In 2024 Labour was able to form a government with a third of the votes, leaving most people unrepresented. In 2029 Reform could do the same. A more proportional system could better match votes to representation. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair votes has proposed a National Commission be set up to find a consensus on how to do it.

Dame Joan Ruddock
(Former Labour MP.)

*****

Dear Editor

You write ‘modernisation that reconnects the public with its political system’.

Well proportional representation would be a start. FPTP is a system that leaves the majority of people without a voice, with no MP to write to who might present their views in Parliament. And now, my Labour government, which I canvassed for, is clamping down on my ability to protest in the streets. Me, I feel very disconnected – not to mention disenfranchised, disillusioned, and frankly, bloody cross.

Regards

Julia West

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