High Peak Liberal Democrats

Has Labour got a Future

Letter to the Guardian from Councillor John Marriott

Dear Sir,

Derrick Joad makes some valid points, even though he got his American statesmen mixed up ( it was Dean Acheson who coined the phrase about losing the empire).

The problem that he and many fail to grasp is that the hard core support for political ideology is roughly split as follows: Conservative around 30%, Socialist around 25% and Liberal around 10%. The rest is up for grabs, and appears currently by or large to be going UKIP's way.

Because our voting system does not generally reflect this pluralism, all parties who are serious about attaining power have to be broad churches to attract the remaining 35% or so of basically floating voters, if they bother to vote at all.

It could have all been so different following Labour's massive victory in 1997, if only the leadership had had the courage fundamentally to drag our country politically into the 20th let alone the 21st century. That time has sadly passed for the immediate future, unless all serious political parties wake up to the fact that their future credibility is at stake unless they grasp the nettle.

Yours faithfully,

John Marriott,

18 St Hugh's Drive,

North Hykeham,

Lincoln LN6 8RD

Tel: 01522 687965

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