Madam,

Not all members of the Labour Party in Ceredigion support the views of the constituency party on the leadership of Corbyn or of the last Labour Government.

As a long-standing paid up member of the party since 1980, I wholeheartedly and unequivocally disassociate myself from these views and am fearful that if Labour does not return to sensible, pragmatic and realistic political action and policies, I may never see another Labour Government elected in Britain in my lifetime.

The constituency party is misguided that certain MPs are undermining Corbyn’s leadership and subverting the democratic process through which he was elected.

Welcome to the world of real politics where our MPs are doing their utmost to make us look like a credible and electable party of government again.

If this is to be condemned, and no doubt the next step will be deselection of those MPs involved and perhaps expulsion of members such as myself, how come our actions differ to what Corbyn did to every previous democratically elected leader of the Labour Party?

There is no evidence that Corbyn acknowledges the monumental task ahead which is to win 100-plus, mainly Tory-held constituencies in order to form a government.

Like it or not, we need to persuade Tory voters to vote for us (as we did in 1997) and Marxist Corbynite ideologies are not going to achieve this.

Politics is all about power and that is how you determine who gets what, when they get it and how they get it.

To get power and deliver what you want to deliver you must learn to compromise, something which Corbyn and his supporters are unwilling or unable to do.

His conduct during the EU Referendum clearly shows an inability to run, organise and deliver an effective and credible national election campaign.

Only in government can you deliver the sort of economic and social change that I and many others want to see and which Corbyn is failing and will fail to deliver.

Would those who support Corbyn and oppose Blair and New Labour have preferred John Major to have been re-elected in 1997 and the Tories stayed ingovernment for 25 years and more?

Without New Labour, dictatorships and global terrorism would not have been opposed, there would be no devolution in Wales and Scotland, no minimum wage, no tax credits, no Sure Start, no peace in Northern Ireland and probably no NHS left worth trying to save today.

New Labour was very good at winning elections and Old Labour wasn’t and never will be.

Yours etc,

Mark Rees, Cae Ceredig, Llanbadarn Fawr, Aberystwyth.

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