Independents are not the answer - Labour is

YOUR correspondent Richard Guise provides a depressing as well as inaccurate view of British politics today (“The quiet revolution against party rule,” Mailbox, January 6).

In essence, he appeals to the power of independents in the political process.

He assesses that this group is on the rise because of a cynicism with current politicians (and by these I assume he means all MPs).

I think this is inaccurate. While it is clear that the current government is corrupt and incompetent, the same cannot be said for the Labour Party, which is currently led by a man who is fundamentally decent and a shadow cabinet that has not been embroiled in the scandals, lies and downright nastiness associated with the current government front bench.

Mr Guise should not be so cynical.

I challenge him to find any (im)moral equivalence between the leading politicians of the two major parties today. He might find the exercise enlightening and uplifting.

This is, of course, not to say that should Labour win power (an unlikely eventuality with our currently absurd, undemocratic voting system), the party would not become tainted.

This happens, as politicians find themselves in positions of power in which they think they are untouchable.

It happened with New Labour but nowhere near on the scale of the current Tory bunch who are busy filling their pockets, debasing our economy and removing our rights under the deceit of “getting Brexit done”.

Mr Guise appears to want to keep politics out of everything; because he implies that to “collect bins” and “oppose developers”, we don’t need a contrary political system.

I agree to some extent with this. The problems of the health service, education and planning would be much better dealt with via a cross-party, 25-year plan rather than the mess we get when governments constantly change (and incidentally when they don’t!).

But the answer is not de-politicisation of the system to one in which politics is run by maverick independents.

The answer is scrutiny of the system itself and the people themselves; and where this doesn’t happen then we are bound to get corruption and incompetence.

So, Mr Guise, please be more positive. All is not lost. We have a great Labour government in waiting, one which will clear up the financial catastrophe created by the Tories, which will provide a strong economy, which will be truthful with people and give hope to the very poorest in our society and ultimately which will begin to drag this benighted country into the 21st century.

Dr Andrew Golland, Leicester