Hollande’s socialism was a disaster for France

sir – It surprises me that in their line of attack on Jeremy Corbyn’s spending promises and socialist manifesto pledges, the Conservatives and the media at large have missed the opportunity to point out the single most historically and geographically relevant example of such socialism.

Venezuela, Seventies’ Britain and even communist East Germany have been deployed as examples of what such policies do to an economy and to society as a whole, but no one has pointed to the recent failure of François Hollande’s government in France between 2012 and 2017.

Mr Hollande’s administration provides us with a powerful study of the effects of outright socialism on a modern economy and society. Yet I have never heard a Tory speak of Mr Hollande’s socialist record: a flight of wealth created by his taxation policies, some of the most persistent structural unemployment in Western Europe exacerbated by his anti-business stance, or the weakest growth of any major Western economy, despite his failure to deal with France’s deficit.

Furthermore, the damage socialism caused to the fabric of French society through its economic failure is seen in the growth of fascist ideology, principally in the rise of Marine Le Pen and the National Front.

Surely this example of modern, relevant socialism provides more of a warning to voters than the evocation of an ever more distant era of unions and miners’ strikes, or economic crisis in a developing South American nation? Timothy Flett Perth

sir – I am surprised that the Conservative Party has not made more of the fact that the Labour Party is funded by the unions to the tune of 98.4 per cent, which highlights where the true power really lies.

The RMT strike over Christmas is just a little taster of what to expect if Labour gets the keys to No 10.

Stephen Hitch Ivybridge, Devon