Only Labour is able to protect our future | Letters
Polly Toynbee (The powerful invisibles at the heart of the Tory party, 5 May) refers to the “deep chasm” that divides our society. The consequences of that chasm in my community are profoundly distressing. I never thought I would see shanties being erected or families staying in sheds and garages just to put a roof over their children’s heads. I didn’t think that people would be going hungry or would have to rely on charity to eat, but so many in my town now do. And how wrong I was when I believed the days of landlords evicting families to increase the rent or for simply complaining about the damp were over.
I fear for our people if Cameron gets back in, especially in alliance with Ukip. Nothing and nobody but the rich will be safe. There is nothing they won’t sell, nothing they won’t cut, and nobody they won’t scapegoat, no matter what harm they cause to even the most vulnerable in our society. As a minimum safeguard we have to ensure Labour is at least the largest party.
From the socialist left in Labour I beg disaffected Labour voters to come home to Labour. Others, especially new young voters, I urge to stand with us in protecting a new generation against the barbarity of a Conservative/Ukip future.
John McDonnell
Chair, Socialist Campaign Group
It is understandable that Caroline Lucas would urge readers to vote Green (Letters, 5 May). However, what she has not said is that a vote for the Green party will do little to bring about an ambitious global agreement to tackle climate change. Within months of the polls closing on Thursday, world leaders will gather in Paris at the conference of parties to adopt an agreement that must set the world on a path towards limiting global temperature increases to two degrees. That agreement can be negotiated only by the next prime minister. If Caroline Lucas goes to Paris it will be to protest, not to negotiate.
The real choice, therefore, is between David Cameron, who long ago abandoned his promise to lead the “greenest government ever” and has taken to referring to environmental policies as “green crap”; and Ed Miliband, who, as secretary of state for climate change, brought in the first national piece of legislation in the world to set legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions (an approach that is now being replicated around the world) and, as leader, has committed to making climate change one of the highest priorities for a Labour government.
The important point for voters to bear in mind is that it will be the next prime minister, not the Green party, who will be negotiating on behalf of the UK in December. Miliband has committed a Labour government to pushing for an ambitious agreement in Paris, with a goal of net-zero global emissions in the second half of this century. The best way, therefore, for voters to tell world leaders that they support urgent and ambitious action to tackle climate change is to elect a Labour government. 
John Prescott
Labour, House of Lords
  As the election campaign commenced I was far from undecided (Floating voters: unsure, but definitely not unprincipled, 1 May). I even wrote to our Labour candidate, saying that with Labour willing to spend millions on ways to use nuclear weapons and intending to continue much of the coalition’s policy of austerity, I would follow my conscience and vote Green. After closely watching the campaign I became a “don’t know”. More recently, the dread of living through another five years while a Conservative/Lib-Dem coalition destroys what’s left of our welfare state, or of seeing a Conservative government march alongside Ukip, has made the idea of feeding my conscience seem a selfish reason for casting a wasted vote. I’ll take a deep breath and do what I think is best and vote Labour.
Martin Smith
Bristol
Like Gaby Hinsliff I am a floating voter. I don’t agree with Tory plans to have more free schools, but I want an EU referendum; I agree with Labour’s plans to stop the exploitation of immigrant workers, but disagree with their manifesto commitment to abolish zero-hours contracts. In the end it will come down to trust. Being a floating voter is a perfectly honourable position to take in an election, because it implies a free-thinking open mind. Political conviction should not be confused with a religious belief, where hallowed shibboleths cannot be challenged.
Stan Labovitch
Windsor
The otherwise admirable Caroline Lucas misrepresents the electoral realities when she states that people need to vote Green in order for Green representation at Westminster to continue (Letters, 5 May). In 99% of constituencies, progressives wasting their votes on the Greens risk ending up with a Conservative MP and potentially another five years of Cameron, Osborne and Clegg.
Christopher Clayton
Chester
Pace Mandy Rice-Davies, but Caroline Lucas would say that to get Greens, you need to vote Green. She argues: “Greens have been clear that we would never prop up a Tory government”, but that is just what Green voters did in 10 constituencies in 2010. For the last five years Tory MPs have been sitting on the coalition benches representing the constituencies of Broxtowe, Camborne and Redruth, Hendon, Hove, Brighton Kemptown, Lancaster and Fleetwood, Newton Abbot, Oxford West and Abingdon, Stroud, Truro and Falmouth and Waveney. Each of them defeated the incumbent party with majorities lower than the Green vote. Who knows, 10 fewer Tories, six more Labour and four more Lib Dems might have changed the arithmetic that begat the premiership of David Cameron.
Alasdair Buchan
Brighton
The talk now seems to be of deals and “red lines”. For undecideds, here’s the only line to consider on Thursday. It’s the inequality line. Step over one side and you’ll be with those who support the underprivileged. A step on the other side lines you up with the privileged and their people. All else – NHS, education, welfare, taxation, justice – flows from this.
Jack Collins
Edinburgh
Please no more dubious “red lines” from Nick Clegg (Nick Clegg: we would prevent Tory cuts or reduce Labour’s deficit, 28 April). He’s crossed more “yellow lines” than I thought possible in the last five years. And now the reality is that he has all but completely aligned himself with a Conservative party that is sleepwalking its way to European Union exit, has threatened to withdraw from the European convention on human rights and seems hell-bent on pushing Scotland towards independence for short-term political gain. An unimaginable position for the Lib Dems before 2010.
For every step forward created by the Lib Dems in government over the last five years, there have been three steps back for the progressive cause in this country. You have to choose a side in big arguments – Europe, human rights, core public services – and the Lib Dem leadership keeps choosing the wrong side.
To be fair I was always more interested in a progressive realignment than being a tribal Liberal Democrat, but writing this saddens me all the same.
Steve Bradford
Lib Dem home affairs adviser 1998-2002, Lympstone, Devon