Dear Readers,
Due to unforeseen technical difficulties (in other words I managed to delete this week’s Feedback forms instead of saving them!) most of your words of wisdom have been lost. But some of you use the comment box at the bottom of an article for articles that are published on our website. The difference is that, unlike the forms and the email responses, these comments appear on our website. Other visitors can read your post and reply to it. All comments are moderated and spam messages are blocked. So here is the feedback I did not delete.
Starmer tries to profit from the NHS crisis <https://creatingsocialism.org/230523-news-starmer-nhs/>
Anyone who expresses confidence that an NHS free at point of contact will be maintained and enhanced under this bunch of Labour centrists needs their head examined. They are all fully wedded to the capitalist system and maintaining the status quo. I read that a number of front benchers are in receipt of funding from private health providers/advocates. Truly shocking if this is the case. GAIL
Starmer’s problem is that, having ditched the pledges used to win the leadership election, no one believes what he says. To further solidify this opinion of himself he has made decisions that are at odds with his history of being a “human rights lawyer ”, as well as other equally baffling decisions made that were at odds with previous statements on the same subject.
Starmer’s shadow health secretary hasn’t helped with his ambivalent remarks about the NHS.
When all is said and done Starmer’s collateral in the honesty stakes is in negative territory. TARLOCHAN KALIROY
Brains and Votes and Drains <https://creatingsocialism.org/240523-news-students/>
Why do you keep talking about Labour? They are class traitors, always have been; if you believe they’ll help then maybe you’ve got a brain drought. NIGEL THOMAS
To be honest with you Nigel, it would probably be in all our interests if Labour collapsed, and we could get on with building an organisation to take on capitalism. Sadly that is not the reality. About 85% of those who voted Labour in 2019 (when it was closer to being a socialist party) still intend to do so. People on the left share those illusions and we feel it is our duty to point out to them why Labour is, as you say, made up of “class traitors”. DAVE MIDDLETON
Feedback Loop – our response to your feedback published on May 7th.
We want an honest conversation with our readers and always try to publish your comments regardless of whether we agree with them or not. But factual errors can creep in and sometimes we want to challenge your assumptions. Above all we try to create a safe space for socialists to express themselves and to disagree with each other without getting personal. So here goes.
In an otherwise excellent response to the attacks on Diane Abbott, ADAM COLCLOUGH is mistaken when he says that, apart from under the Nazis, Jews have not faced legal restrictions that marginalised them. Countries like Tsarist Russia had specific laws that targeted Jews. In the UK laws that privileged the Protestant religion discriminated against all other religions. Hence British Jews and Roman Catholics had to wait until 1890 for complete emancipation under the law.
I am concerned that LINDA FERGUSON’s reference to ‘biological realism’ suggests that there is a conflict between women’s rights and trans rights. Just as we do not subscribe to a hierarchy of racism on the Sunday Socialist, as we made plain in our defence of Diane Abbott, so we reject all attempts to introduce an analogous hierarchy for oppression based on sex or gender.
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Life long socialist. Now retired, I have been an office junior, a bookseller, a docker and a teacher. I write a lot and read a lot more. Committed member of the Society of Authors, English PEN and the National Education Union. Uncommitted member of the Labour Party. Will they expel me before my direct debit expires?