LETTERS: Labour is right to be wary

JOAN SMITH is witty and entertaining, but what she writes about Liz Davies is tosh ("I've seen into the future and it's full of Tony Blurs", 1 October).

Anyone who remembers the Labour Party in the pre-Kinnock years must remember the internal strife. There were powerful groups in the party, keen to publish their own agendas in publications such as Militant and Socialist Worker, and also to air these agendas at every party conference. They were so intent on fighting moderate people that they turned their backs on the Conservative Party and neither fought it nor argued with it. They destroyed the public appeal of the Labour Party for 10 years.

If Ms Davies is connected to an extreme left-wing publication, then she is dangerous to the party. If she has proved herself not to be a team player with her local party then she is not fit to be in local or national politics.

The Labour Party does right to guard itself carefully. We, the Labour voters, want a Labour government and soon. We do not want a group of saintly individuals in permanent opposition.

Mary S Rooks

Blaby, Leicester