Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments
A new left and right?
John (MetroTalk, Fri) asks what universe anyone might be in to consider Andy Burnham as being ‘left wing’?
Here’s how I see things nowadays. The Greater Manchester mayor and many Labour MPs are moving towards the vacant spot once occupied by the sane wing of the Conservative Party.
The extreme Tories think they can move towards Reform but this will be to no avail – just look at far-right activist Tommy Robinson endorsing Reform candidate Matt Goodwin in the Gorton and Denton by-election!
The Greens, meanwhile, are on the left – which was once where you’d find the likes of late Labour veteran Tony Benn.
And then there are the Lib-Dems, firmly in the middle – biding their time. Robert Boston, Kent
Reform have supported ICE, points out reader
The two deaths in Minneapolis and subsequent tweets supporting ICE by two Reform councillors in Leicestershire begged the question, ‘Can Reform UK sink any lower?’
Sadly, the answer is, ‘Yes, they can’.
In a now-deleted post, Reform councillor Mick Cockerham from Newton Abbot South in Devon, made a comment under a Facebook post about London mayor Sadiq Khan stating Nigel Farage would bring an ICE-style crackdown to Britain.
‘Here’s hoping we might see the same ICE correction techniques for woke interfering lefties,’ Cockerham wrote.
In effect, this represents incitement to violence against a politician and is indicative of the divisive and pernicious rhetoric promoted by Reform UK. Mike Baldwin, via email
Starmer ‘never stood for anything consistent in the first place’, says reader
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I don’t understand Rob’s view of Sir Keir Starmer as a right-wing sellout when the reality is the opposite (MetroTalk, Fri).
Yes, Starmer won the leadership of the Labour Party on a fairly left-wing ticket, but it was still a party influenced by Jeremy Corbyn, so how else could he win?
He then tacked to the centre right in order to win the General Election but his large parliamentary majority remained fairly left wing and focused on expanding the welfare state. Therefore, centre-right policies that would have been popular with the public – such as deporting illegal migrants and cutting welfare state expenditure – failed to materialise and economic growth disappeared with absurdly high levels of taxation.
All Starmer can now do is pander to the left wing of his party as, together, they sink towards electoral failure.
There is no ‘betraying everything he stood for,’ as Rob puts it, because he never stood for anything consistent in the first place. Chris Shepherd, London
Would UK business with China be ‘dangerous’, as Trump suggests?
Referring to Sir Keir Starmer’s meetings with Chinese president Xi Jinping, Donald Trump suggested increased business with China would be ‘very dangerous’ for the UK, and more so for Canada – yet Trump’s irrational criticisms and threats of punitive tariffs encourage us to foster relationships with China. Building confidence and trust is a cornerstone of trade – by eroding that, Trump should expect the UK, Canada and Europe to deal more extensively with China and other superpowers. Robert Hughes, London
Should China withdraw support for Russia?
PM Starmer follows hot in the footsteps of Canada’s Mark Carney and leaders from France and Germany in visiting China to cosy up to the country’s leadership in order to drum up business for their respective countries.
This is all well and good, except these four men are supposed to be the leaders of the Coalition Of The Willing, keen to support Ukraine in its defence against Russia. Can we suppose they asked China to withdraw its support for Russia and to now work for a lasting ceasefire and a peace deal that is fair and reasonable for Ukraine? Gordon, Clapham
‘If Andrew had a shred of honour or decency left in him, he would crawl away and hide under a rock forever’
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor cannot possibly continue to proclaim his innocence in the Epstein scandal, especially after the release of the latest tranche of documents by the US Department of Justice (Metro, Mon).
If he had a shred of honour or decency left in him, he would crawl away and hide under a rock forever. He need not be alone – he could take that other disgraced ‘Epsteiner’, Lord Mandelson, with him. Bob Readman, Sevenoaks
This reader has been put off his boiled eggs…
The people responsible for handing out honours and peerages need to think long and hard before doing so – with Epstein, the list of people coming back to haunt those responsible becomes longer.
We were subjected to images of Lord Mandelson in his undergarments this weekend. The dressing gown one last year was bad but this put me right off my boiled eggs on Sunday morning. Dec, Essex
