Tony Blair will only hurt – not help – the Labour Party

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

If Blair were seen to be involved in the workings of the present Labour party, there would be a backlash from good and honest Labour voters (PA)

I feel compelled to respond to Judith A Daniels’ recent letter suggesting that a blighted Tony Blair should be allowed – in fact encouraged – to have anything to do with our future ever again.

Keir Starmer is doing a magnificent job ridding Britain of this incompetent, untrustworthy Tory government. He certainly doesn’t require Tony Blair to assist. If he were seen to be involved in the workings of the present Labour party’s push for government there would be a backlash from good and honest Labour voters.

In my view, Blair was leniently judged for lying to the British public over a war which sent many to their deaths, maimed many more and further destabilised the Middle East. Let us leave the current Labour Party to win the next election – they are doing a fine job.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

The short-term solution is causing long-term problems

Combatting climate change is not simply – or even mainly – about achieving net zero by 2050. Much more urgent is how much carbon dioxide we emit in the meantime, adding to the already toxic legacy of the industrial revolution.

By slowing the implementation of control measures, the UK government is committing us to higher emissions in the short term, exacerbating the problem and setting an appalling example for the rest of the world.

John Wilkin

Bury St Edmunds

Our prime minister knows the sorry truth

In our era of soundbites and platitudes, our politicians do not see the need to educate us. There are tangible reasons why extending our country’s green deadlines would have become inevitable. These relate to the sorry state of our infrastructure. Our electricity grid cannot supply the needs of current new installations, let alone all the new charging points and heat pumps.

Only this week a developer we work with at my company discovered that 150 new flats that were to be powered by heat exchangers would only be weeks from their completion before having to be fitted with gas boilers, due to insufficient energy capacity. The government has to address the vital issue of energy supply or we will all be suffering from road rage, as we wait at charging points and shivering in our homes as the power fails. Perhaps our prime minister was not just electioneering, but knows the sorry truth. We are not prepared for the new era.

Paul Sonabend

London

Content cash-in

Interesting that both YouTube and Acast have taken steps to ensure Russell Brand is unable to continue to make money from his content but have not removed said content, presumably so as not to reduce their revenue.

Geoff Forward

Stirling

Time for a new Tory party

At last, the time has come for a major political realignment, initiated by Sunak’s betrayal of the green consensus. Ideally, it needs action on both sides of the political divide.

First, the many sensible and centrist Conservatives should take advantage of this latest major rift within their party to leave Sunak and his few hard-right chums to their isolated, selfish fantasy land. The responsible Tories could either defect en masse to other parties, or rather, because of their number, take the opportunity to establish a new, effective centrist party unencumbered by the extremist and troublesome fringe.

Meanwhile, it would be good to see Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens making a joint statement that they would work together to substantially reverse Sunak’s U-turn when they defeat the Tories.  They could even go so far as an electoral pact in order to protect the UK’s green future.

Tim Sidaway

Herts