I wish I was a Labour member to keep Jess Phillips in the running – she’s the only one who tells it like it is

I’m not a Labour member, but I now wish I’d joined in case I could’ve somehow kept Jess Phillips in the running. The only one who told it like it is, she also appealed thanks to her time working in domestic abuse services. What Rebecca Long-Bailey has done to earn a Corbyn sceptic’s confidence I can’t see. And Keir Starmer just bores me. As for Thornberry – Emily who? As a woman deeply invested in opposing a Tory government that will make so many lives worse, I can’t believe it’s come to this.

Gisette Hornchurch
Cowes, Isle of Wight

Impressed by Nandy

While I am sorry that Jess Phillips is no longer standing as a candidate for leader of the Labour Party, I was impressed by Lisa Nandy when interviewed on the Today programme. As important as her very cogent and relevant reasoning was the refreshing fact that, for at least the first half of the interview, Nick Robinson didn’t interrupt at all. And even as it progressed he managed to keep his interruptions to a minimum.

As a result we, as listeners, actually got a clear view of Nandy’s own ideas and aspirations, as well as learning more about her as a person – which is important in view of the fact that she’s perhaps less high profile than the other candidates. Listeners were treated to a conversation between two intelligent adults rather than being frustrated by the sound of two people talking over each other with very little of the interviewee’s reasons (or lack of) being heard.

Rosemary Mathew
Cambridge

Not the voice of Labour majority

John Rentoul in characterising Jess Phillips’s divisive and abrasive comments (since 2015) as “uncomfortable truths” is one way of describing her anti-Corbyn vitriol which does not chime with the majority of members. As a Labour Party member, I’ve been staggered by the level of hostility meted out to the twice-elected leader.

In response to accusations of stabbing Corbyn in the back, Jess “I’d stab him in the front” Phillips has been fuelling the MSM’s campaign to have the Labour Party revert to purveying cosy non-threatening policies so admired by such as Rentoul.

Phillips’s justified condemnation of social media attacks predominantly on women MPs is in contrast to her own extreme threat towards Corbyn. Corbyn’s name has been weaponised over the last four years, but sorry John, the policies which sparked the revival of the Labour Party still exist and will continue under the next leader.

Eddie Dougall
Bury St Edmunds

A change of course for capitalism

Your article that an increasing number of people are coming to the view that capitalism does more harm than good is interesting but what effect, if any, will this have? The rise of capitalism would appear to be relentless, from its origins where a privileged minority using wealth and status often acquired by their ancestors in wars of invasion, conquest and confiscation go on to acquire more land, minerals, wealth and, in the case of the slave trade, even the ownership of human beings.

The relentless march of capitalism has on occasions been delayed and its course altered by the actions of individuals coming together, the union and the anti-slavery movements are examples, but the law continued to be controlled by the elite so that it was the slave owners not the slaves who received compensation. The anti-worker legislation was, and continues to this day, to be enacted by the capitalist elite to protect and enhance their position of entitlement and control

Since the early 1980s an ever increasing level of resources have been and is being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, and we see across the globe a significant rise in inequality within societies. Capitalism may well be about to change course but I doubt it will be to tackle inequality. It is more likely to be a change of direction brought about by protection of vested interests.

John Simpson
Ross on Wye

BBC licence payers should have a say

Having watched Newsnight last night and now reading your coverage of the BBC leadership issues, I am incensed by the idea that no plans are being made to consult the people who really matter – the licence payers – about what they want from the broadcaster in the future.

This is taxation without representation and failure to honour the principle that “the man who pays the piper calls the tune”. Much has changed in 100 years and technology continues to advance.

I have paid for a TV licence for 40 years now. Surely this should buy me the right to express my views on what I want for the next 20 years? Or does the BBC want to go the way of the old-fashioned department stores?

Linda Hall
Address supplied

Out of touch Shapps

This morning on BBC Breakfast I saw transport secretary Grant Shapps interviewed about changes to train networks. Like Chris “failing” Grayling before him, he said he “knew” all the frustrations of commuting and identified with the grievances. What? Like the people who have changed jobs at a lower salary just to avoid the stress? Like all the people who cannot claim every penny they spend like Tory MPs do – cups of coffee, Remembrance Day wreaths, eye test charges? People who not only cannot claim their expenses but also cannot travel first class and claim it back.

None of us have chauffeurs either to take us up the road to our second home or hotel after “work”. Unbelievable what they will say to grasp at some kind of palpable quality.

Richard Kimble
Leeds

Fox is not racist

Dear Hannah Yelin, your article about Laurence Fox is quite silly. Laurence Fox is a man who says how it is without BS. Far too long has our country been tolerant of the snowflake liberals who want us to be a soft and gullible nation. We are one of the most tolerant countries in the world, it’s just that we don’t want to be ruled by liberals. We like to be as we always have been and that is how we should stay.

Racism is a word that is being used to attack people who just express their views. If you listen to Mr Fox properly you will hear that he is not a racist, it’s the woman who called him a racist who is wrong.

Paul Brunton
Address supplied