SHOOT THE MESSENGER

David Starkey’s attack on the “middleclass” influence on socialism makes a schoolboy error: the validity of an idea bears no relationship to the people who create it; Wagner’s anti-semitism has no relationship to the quality of his music. Of course, psychologically, a person may refuse to listen to Wagner’s music because of his views, ditto socialism. In short, by maligning the messenger the message will not be read.

With regards to Hartlepool, the voters must have forgotten how the Conservatives used their taxpayers’ money to bail out the bankers in 2010, resulting in their lives being impoverished for the next ten years: less money for their council and hence fewer services and facilities, fewer hospital beds and nurses, more children in poverty, multiplication of food banks and family poverty via no wage increases. Michael Moore

Loughton, Essex