Letter: People power

IT IS SAD to see Neal Ascherson signing off from the IoS (25 January). He does so, of course, with a forthright expression of what the future should hold: liberty, equality, and fraternity. That places him well to the left of New Labour.

However, just as he says that if the future does belong to the left it won't be in its traditional forms, so Ascherson's formulation too will need to be reworked. Political democracy is still vital. But so, now, are economic and social democracy as well. If there is a lesson from 1 May 1997, this is surely it.

Keith Flett

London N17