THE election of Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader; shows that the Blairite “centrists” are back in control. Starmer will endorse all of the pro-business, pro-austerity, pro-war, anti-worker policies of the Tories. All this to be “electable”.

The reason the Blairites have been able to bide their time is the constant surrendering to them on every issue by Corbyn. Such was his cowardice that Corbyn even refused to defend his supporters from the bogus accusations of antisemitism.

READ MORE: George Kerevan: Starmer’s Labour predecessors will be spinning in their political graves

Starmer’s first act was to give an unconditional offer to “work” with Boris Johnson. Starmer’s job will be to assuage the anger that will rightly be felt towards Johnson’s criminally incompetent handling of Covid-19.

He then went grovelling to the Board of Deputies, promising to conduct a thorough witch hunt against pro-Palestinian activists within the Labour party. All under the guise of rooting out antisemitism Starmer has also signalled that Iraq war architect Alastair Campbell will be welcomed back into the Labour party with open arms.

READ MORE: SNP push Keir Starmer to help secure Brexit talk pause

Before becoming an MP, Starmer was the Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales. In that time he failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile in 2009. He was responsible for the attempted extradition to the US of Julian Assange. In 2013 Starmer boasted he was going to jail those on low incomes for longer if they committed benefit fraud. All this while he refused to prosecute a single banker over the 2008 crash.

The Labour party is a dead parrot. The illusion that it changed under Corbyn has been been permanently discredited.

Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

I REALISE it’s early days but I am hoping Labour’s new leader is an indication that things may improve. First of all I believe he was named after the founder of the Labour party Keir Hardie. Well that can’t be bad!

He, like Scotland, was against Brexit and wanted a second referendum. He’s meant to be a socialist, although commentators say a soft one. He says he will fight poverty and homelessness and raise taxes for the well-off. We’ll see. He was a passionate successful human rights lawyer so this begs the question, “will he support Holyrood in its just right for a second independence referendum?”

I truly hope Labour south of the Border can take on the Tories in a more meaningful manner, much like Scotland has. But more importantly, will Sir Keir lead his party like the young successful radical and passionate socialist he once was, or will he succumb to the status quo of the influential establishment? Only time will tell.

Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus

BEING confronted with negativity in the news and scheduling by the BBC and other broadcasters, you would have thought they would have been eager to interact with a diversion and a little positivity that yesterday – the 700th anniversary of The Declaration of Arbroath, a memorable day in Scotland’s history – would have afforded.

Instead of the relentless coronavirus stories repeated ad nauseam, wouldn’t it have been marvellous to have some distraction from their lack of imagination in setting their news agendas? Life is restricted enough without broadcasters constantly reaffirming the negativity. The majority of us are having to find our distractions and happier moments of joy on social media while the mainstream media churn out the same relentless, depressing stories. I would ask them to try harder and not always take the easy option when deciding on their output. I have contacted the BBC regarding this and await their response.

Christine Smith
Troon

I OBJECT as a citizen of Edinburgh very strongly to being called a “sour-faced philistine” by Shona Craven because I have reservations about the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe (Do not be disheartened – the shows must go on, April 3).

No-one disputes it is money-generating for the city, however it largely led to the highest concentration of Airbnbs in the UK, which forced up the price of rents and displaced many private long-term rentiers from the city.

Moreover “the trickle-down effect” to poorer residents in the city is negligible and apart from the marvellous Free Fringe shows (long may they continue!), prices for other shows and refreshments are extortionate and well beyond the average monthly salary/wage.

The entire Festival events require a fundamental rethink to recapture the spirit of 1947, and since greed is the present driver of events this is unlikely in the near future.

Shona Craven really does need to get out more (or was she already self-isolating before the coronavirus pandemic?) to get a true picture of events.

Incidentally she may be interested to know that as well as a member of Living Rent in the city I am a member of Equity, having last year performed in a play”Foodbank 2019” at the Scottish Parliament.

For the immediate future the message is absolutely clear – “You’ll have had your festival then?”

James Park
Edinburgh

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