SIR – The success of the SNP in Scotland shows the extent of the damage done to the Labour party by New Labour.
It is hard to envisage a more traditional Labour electorate than that in the central belt in Scotland where once ‘safe’ Labour seats fell spectacularly to the SNP in the recent elections to the Scottish parliament.
New Labour abandoned its once traditional voters by ignoring them, convinced that they had nowhere else to go.
In Scotland, they found the SNP, a genuine social democratic party with many traditional Labour policies plus opposition to the Iraq war and the Trident nuclear deterrent.
In England, there is no SNP equivalent. In 2010, Labour polled 29 per cent, about the same as under Michael Foot in 1983. In 1983, Foot also had to contend with the breakaway SDP.
New Labour managed its 29 per cent all on its own. Labour’s recovery did not start in Scotland, as Ed Miliband forecast, its demise did.
What does the Labour party stand for today?
Many Labour MPs want to break the union link and scrap the 50 per cent tax rate to keep their seats, they believe. That seems to be it.
PETER NIELSEN
Worcester
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