Sir Keir Starmer

• I AM not surprised by the low turnout in the recent elections across Britain and here in London.

There is little to choose between the Conservatives and Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, as confirmed by his welcoming of Natalie Elphicke, a right-wing Tory defector.

And his numerous failings on almost all the major issues facing our benighted country, from Brexit to Rwanda, make most people realise that there will be little change if Labour does become the next government.

But people are slowly realising that the problems in their lives are almost entirely due to the policies of the various Tory governments we have had in recent decades, most noticeably George Osborne’s appalling austerity policies.

And these governments – given my loony lefty opinions – includes the Tony Blair / Gordon Brown government which barely changed the policies of Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government, including its disastrous neoliberal economics which led to the financial crash which Brown had to deal with!

They didn’t even repeal the right-to-buy legislation which has seen one-third of our former council homes now in the hands of private landlords.

Of course, there are massive issues after the decades of deliberate neglect of the welfare state from the Tories.

This has brought about almost everything wrong in Britain today, from homelessness to the National Health Service waiting lists.

But will Sir Keir Starmer change any of this?

Not from what I hear, half the topics he dare not even mention: Brexit, for a start where, again, voter apathy allowed this stupidity to dribble through into our departure from contacts with our nearest neighbours and trading partners, with all the social and financial difficulties that has led to.

Sadly I see little chance of progress in the coming years.

It will take someone with guts to confront the real issues in Britain today and propose ways forward against the simplistic views of our tiny-minded press.

But I would like to see a leader who wasn’t afraid to discuss the issues. They are real!

DAVID REED, NW3