Does Labour need a Dame of Thrones?
LABOUR leadership candidate Lisa Nandy has gained the backing of the powerful GMB union. It announced its nomination with a mocked-up photo on social media portraying her as a character in the TV show Game Of Thrones. I thought the Iron Throne, on which Ms Nandy is sitting, was a symbol of a ruthless dictatorship, ruling by violence and fear. Dispatching political opponents by way of decapitation was the preferred method. Perhaps that is the way the GMB would like Labour to be!
ALAN STEAD, Loftus, N. Yorks. AS AN erstwhile Labour member who has lent their vote to the Tories to get Brexit over the line and defeat the hard-Left, my vote is in the balance once again as I take a keen interest in the Labour leadership contest. Of the remaining candidates, Rebecca Long-Bailey is a Corbynista clone, Keir Starmer is an anti-Brexiteer who would probably seek to rejoin the EU at the earliest opportunity and Emily Thornberry is a parody of a politician as a smug headmistress who thinks the average person is an idiot. And then there is Lisa Nandy. She is a Labour politician who bucked the trend and retained her Wigan seat because she has always put her constituents at the heart of her politics. Though she voted against Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, she never did a U- turn on Brexit and always insisted she would back the right deal. Ms Nandy comes over as a practical, sensible and consensual politician who is less driven by abstract ideology and more by a desire to listen to voters and make Labour electable again. Reaching the final two in the leadership contest will be a challenge, but is not impossible. But sadly, getting a majority of Labour members’ votes, many of whom are hard-Left ideologues, is difficult to imagine.
PAUL FISH, London W13.