Let Labour lose so it can elect a new, responsible leader who will hold the government to account

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In the cold light of day on Thursday 12 December, will voters really consider casting their choice for their Liberal Democrat candidate, just to keep Boris Johnson out of government?

At a time of great national need, would we really and honestly prefer to usher into government a leader and a team that would not only quickly and sharply wrench our country inexorably backwards, but destroy our relationship with USA? All the while leading us further into more and more confusion with Europe? All at the same time as paving the way towards the break-up of the union?

Also, surely no one in their right mind actually, literally wants parliament to continue as a hung, stagnant and ineffective quagmire.

To avoid these unthinkable scenarios, the present opposition party needs to lose this election, then choose a new and responsible leader who will effectively hold the government to account, and steadily gain some needed respectability.

Peter Fleck
Maidstone, Kent

History lessons

As a somewhat successful business owner employing around 75 staff, I am writing aghast at the very real possibility of Labour and Jeremy Corbyn gaining more power after the general election.

British citizens who are under 60 now would probably have little conception of the chaos caused by the industrial strikes of the Seventies and Eighties.

The Labour Party intends to reverse the Thatcher reforms of the Eighties, including the allowance of secondary strikes – this will have the potential to paralyse Britain again.

Margaret Thatcher won a landslide victory after the country suffered millions of working days lost through these strikes.

Do we have to go through the pain of history repeating itself before we wake up to the effect of this impending potential economic disaster?

Corbyn’s plans also include proposals that a third of board seats should be reserved for workers. Imagine what this will do to foreign would-be investors in Britain who would otherwise have wanted to set up businesses in the UK.

We all need our eyes opened to what a Corbyn-led government will seek to achieve through its anti-business policies.

Phil Anderson
Henham​, Essex

Tories rarely change their spots

The cynical misrepresentation of traditional Conservative values for political gain and or public credibility was exemplified by Dominic Raab in his interview on Radio 4, when he tried to distance himself from his pamphlet of a few years ago. In it he suggested that two-thirds of all hospitals should be private and more of the functions of the rest should be privatised. Despite his denials, it is unbelievable he meant canteens and bookshops.

While it has always been widely acknowledged by all parties that the Tory ideology embraces the private sector, it seems that in order to remain in power they are trying to appear to be more left leaning. The electorate should be reminded that leopards rarely change their spots.

G Forward
Stirling

Celebrating disabilities

As we celebrate International Day of People with Disabilities, it is clear that a lot still needs to be done to increase understanding and representation of people who, like myself, were born with autism or a learning disability.

We continue to face exclusion across the country. New research by Dimensions shows that 96 per cent of us have felt misunderstood, and 99 per cent think society doesn’t understand what we’re capable of. This needs to change.

As a society, we need to do more to celebrate our contributions.

I am proud to be joining the Dimensions’ Learning Disability and Autism Leaders’ List and call for greater representation. We’re all proud of who we are. We’re campaigners, artists, sportspeople and activists, and every day we work to make society better for ourselves and others around us. It’s time our achievements are recognised.

Jemma Clancy
Winner of the 2019 Dimensions’ Learning Disability and Autism Leaders List

Reality of not vaccinating

I must congratulate The Independent on the fine article by Kate Ng, highlighting how catastrophic the low vaccination rate can be in a country with good health facilities.

People in the UK would think of idyllic beaches, Gauguin paintings, Robert Louis Stevenson writings and happy, well-fed locals, maybe even speaking English. Not epidemics and schools shutting down.

Just contrast this to developing countries and the almost knee-jerk excuse that deaths and disease are because they are backward and it would happen anyway.

This year there have been over 4,000 deaths from measles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Madagascar there have been over 1,200 deaths, I could tragically list many more countries.

We rightly lament unnecessary deaths from crime, terrorism, famine, and war but because of a relentless campaign from crazy vaccination deniers there are huge amounts of fatalities – mainly children – and innumerable people disabled across the globe.

This is only measles – many other preventable infectious diseases are on the increase as vaccination rates drop alarmingly. For example, diphtheria, polio, tetanus, whooping cough etc.

If we do not turn this around globally, we shall pay a very high price in the future, and the future will be sooner than we think.

Robert Boston
Kingshill, Kent

A question of democracy

Anybody that believes they can hold another referendum because they didn’t agree with the first result shows they haven’t even begun to understand democracy.

At least the SNP doesn’t even pretend to be democratic unlike the so-called Lib Dems who should be prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act.

Then again, I guess the SNP knows it wouldn’t get away with it. The only way it can stay in power is to withhold a decent education to young folk so the dodgy economics behind its adventure to the end of the rainbow to find a unicorn named Independence don’t get exposed.

Patrick Shaw
Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire

Anyone but us

While Mr Johnson is busily and, it has to be said, shabbily blaming Labour, as well as previous Tory governments, for any failure to avoid the terrible attack at London Bridge – and amid the generous, positive and humbling calls from Mr Merritt’s father to respect the principles his son Jack (and, of course, Saskia Jones) was promoting – I’d like to ask Mr Johnson why his government continues to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, enabling them to terrorise other countries? Is it simply anyone but us?

Beryl Wall
London