It's time to put differences aside and create a progressive alliance on the left to defeat the Tories

At a time when the political left in the Anglo-Saxon world appears to be in complete and utter disarray, now is the time for progressive members of our society to put their differences aside and unite under the objective of stopping a Conservative landslide.

Just as hard leftist Yanis Varoufakis encouraged the Mélenchon-supporting French left to vote for liberal centrist Emmanuel Macron to stop a bigoted, dangerous leader from taking power, Britons from across the left half of the political spectrum should cooperate in unison to prevent Theresa May from further strengthening her mandate for a hard Brexit-supporting, closed-minded Tory Government.

Theresa May was most certainly cunning in calling a snap general election. Not only was her Conservative Government polling above Labour at the time, but she herself was (and still is) viewed as the most popular politician by the public. On top of her control of the Conservative party, May called the election at a time when Labour appeared to be in even more turmoil than usual since Jeremy Corbyn became leader, with the party confused on its stance on Brexit. But since Theresa May's decision to call a snap election, the Conservatives' lead over Labour in opinions polls has halved, and now is the time for the progressives of Britain to unite in defeating the prospects of at the very least five more years of socially regressive Tory policies.

Whilst both the uncompromising hardline leftist Corbynistas and equally stubborn right-leaning Lib Dems may wish to have nothing to do with one another, they must surely recognise how many worlds closer they are to each other than either is to Theresa May’s cold, cruel and cuts-oriented Conservative party. It is in a small, bizarre, yet ever more common set of elections that the progressives of a nation must put aside their less relevant differences and unite against a far more damaging right-wing regime.

Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh
Cambridge

We should focus UK money on British citizens

Well done to Southend Conservative Council's leader John Lamb for speaking out against his own party's “dementia tax”. It is a worry and very upsetting for many older people that the house they have worked hard for, and would want their children to inherit, will have to be sold in order to fund their care later in life.

He makes another extremely valid point, a view that I and many others have long held: why on earth are we sending aid to other countries to help fund their arms and space programmes, when we have so many needy people in this country?

Diane Graham
​Watford

The Green Party should not be ignored

An otherwise illuminating article about Theresa May's desperation to achieve a convincing majority ends with a summary of what the polls are saying about “the other parties”.

Yet again the Green Party is nowhere to be seen. Ukip is still mentioned repeatedly in coverage of this election whilst the Green Party is repeatedly ignored.

In Bristol West Molly Scott-Cato has a very real chance of being elected, and support for the Green Party candidates in a number of other seats is impressive.

Can the Independent set an example to the rest of the press by ensuring the Green Party gets at least the same attention as Ukip?

Lynda Newbery
Bristol

The Government should not decide which free meals schools provide

Carmel McConnell echoes the view of parents and schools when it comes to which free meals to offer: it should be the choice of schools depending on their locality, size, number of children taking meals, and so on. Theresa May's plan to scrap free lunches in favour of breakfasts makes no sense in a lot of contexts.

In our school, Marlborough Primary in Falmouth, most children eat breakfast at home and a highlight of the day is the imaginative lunches provided by our young cook, Jess, free to infants and paid for by a number of juniors. They are popular with children, teachers and visiting parents.

Two years of impressing on children the way to have healthy and exciting meals has won us the best school meals award in Cornwall. But if money is diverted to breakfasts, the cooked lunch take up will inevitably drop and often less healthy packed lunches from home will proliferate. And do parents want to get the children up and to school an hour earlier for Weetabix and toast?

Jen West, governor at Marlborough School
​Falmouth

Is “Remaining” really so unrealistic?

If things don’t work out well for the UK in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations is it possible we could stay in the EU? It is quite possible we may not get any (or much of a) deal on exit from the Union. One wonders therefore why we’re going to all the trouble of trying.

It is of course true that by a wafer thin majority – and with many taken in by an exceedingly dodgy Leave prospectus – people did vote for Brexit. But does this mean we automatically have to face years of parliamentary and civil service paralysis while MPs and Government officials struggle with the huge bureaucratic exercise of repatriating powers from Brussels at the same time as trying to strike new trade deals?

Rev. Andrew McLuskey
Address supplied

Attitudes towards immigration are beyond parody

With regards to the problems facing UK curry restaurants as a result of immigration crackdowns, it reminded me of Not The Nine O'Clock News "Young Conservative" sketch where Rowan Atkinson intones: "I like curry. But now that we've got the recipe is there any need for them to stay?" Only it seems we can't be bothered with the recipe unless it's for disaster.

David Murphy
Address supplied