Labour Party woes

Our MP Paul Bristow thinks that the opposition is in a sorry state (Westminster Life, 9th. March).

I fully agree.

The Labour Party failed to regroup sufficiently following the Covid lockdown ordeal, but that is not the full story.

A crisis was brought about by the alienation of Jeremy Corbyn's supporters. Hundreds of thousands in the Peace movement did not know if they were coming or going with regard to the party. Defections to the Greens became widespread despite the obvious benefit to the Tories. Others turned inward, wondering why they bother.

The election campaign must have put Jeremy Corbyn under a tremendous strain and he should have been publicly thanked for his efforts. Instead, he was vilified and his name blackened by those who boast of impartiality.

He was leader of the party for most of five years - that at least should have earned him a few appearances on Question Time, yet he rarely had any chance to make a public comment.

Peace campaigning involves the promotion of dialogue with unpleasant people. It can be misinterpreted as support for their cause. Similarly, reasonable criticism of the Israeli government can be misconstrued as anti-Semitism - a horrible word that can be seriously damaging to the reputation of a person striving to help with reconciliation in the Middle East.

It could be argued that we lost that election precisely because of the impediments fomented by the media.

If we needed a change of leadership, it could have been done without the damaging censorship, if not persecution, of one of the principal opponents of the military industrial complex. The baby was thrown out with the bath water without necessity as the party

lurched to the right, more suited, apparently, to the nascent rogue agenda of the Tory government.

Tim Hughes, Gladstone Street, Peterborough