What will replace neo-liberalism?

Sir — From Thatcher and Reagan to Brexit and Trump, are we witnessing the death of neo-liberalism and its friend austerity?

We’ve gone from the trickledown theory to the trickleup reality of the politics of dispossession, where 30 year olds pay more on a mortgage and rent and have less of a disposable income than their contemporaries of 30 years ago.

The established elite, through neo-liberalism, has crushed and squashed the middle ground and the middle classes.

Zero-hour contracts and the minimum, unlivable wage have become the norm. The people we elect cut our school, health and welfare budgets while telling us we’ve never had it so good. Working-class families need two incomes to survive and grandparents are the unpaid carers for a new generation of latch-key children.

Neo-liberalism is dead, but what will replace it?

As people look for an alternative to austerity cuts, job losses and tax evasion, the rich get richer at the expense of wider society. The danger is that society will move further to the right. Brexit and Trump have proved that people have been left behind, forgotten and marginalised. These people insist on being heard. It’s not just a protest vote, it’s far more. People are demanding equality and a financially inclusive society.

The far right and sections of the media blame immigration as the main cause of a shortage of adequate jobs, housing ,and hospital beds. In reality it’s neoliberal privatisation and cuts that are at fault.

The left must offer a viable alternative to neo-liberalism, as I believe we do, and stop the inexorable move of society to the right, as we are witnessing in Europe and further afield.

A rerun of the politics of the 1930s is approaching. Fra Hughes,

Belfast