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Tony Blair needs to come back – he's the only one who can get us out of this mess

The time has come for Tony Blair to step forward and establish a new political party after the fashion of New Labour, since both the Tory and Labour parties are incapable of leading and governing the country. The far right within the Conservative Party are like lemmings, leading the country over the cliff, with economic suicide for us all. It would seem that the Tories are at war with each other, the far right against those who see themselves as moderates. The far right are more concerned with their own political aims than doing what is right for the country.

Labour, on the other hand, has been taken over by the Communist Party, with policies that failed in the 1970s and a leader whose followers use intimidation, bullying and threats against the moderate members of the party. For my entire adult life, I have been a Labour supporter and a believer in the objectives of the Labour movement. But now I find that I can no longer support the Labour Party, even though I endorse many, if not most, Labour MPs. The problem is the far left: it has taken over the leadership and is having moderate MPs deselected.

What is needed is a new vision, a new method of government with clear objectives: we need a society that works for everyone.

In my opinion, Tony Blair was the greatest prime minister that this country has ever had. That does not mean he never made mistakes. But once he made his mind up to do something, he did whatever it took to achieve it,

If you disagreed with him about the Iraq War, it does not mean he was wrong or that you were wrong; it simply means you had different opinions. He was able to look at the bigger picture and to reach a different conclusion. What the country needs today is strong leadership and direction. We need politicians of the very highest standard, people of integrity and intelligence.

I believe we, as a country, need Tony Blair to step forward, to be the head of a new kind of politics and a new kind of political party. I also call upon the moderates within both the Tory and Labour parties to join this new movement. We are living in a new age and we need a new kind of politics and politicians to lead and guide the country. Imagine what we could achieve if the moderates from all political parties came together and worked for the country. History shows us that need to change and evolve: we live in a new age and we need new ideas and ideology to survive. We need a leader with integrity and vision – we need you, Tony Blair!

Kevin Rixon​
Address supplied

New Brexit slogan has something to do with apple crumble…

Sad to see that Chas Hodges died at the weekend – almost immediately I decided that the Conservative Party should adopt the inimitable song, “Ain’t No Pleasing You”, as an anthem, and Theresa May could adopt the album from whence it came, Mustn’t Grumble.

Robert Boston
Kingshill

Norway ain’t got it so bad

In the aftermath of the Salzburg meeting, Theresa May remarked that to remain in the single market would make a mockery of the referendum result.

Norway also voted in a referendum by a similar 52 to 48 per cent margin against EU membership, in 1994. Nevertheless Norwegians have accepted membership of the single market as consistent with not being in the EU. Objectively Norway is a very successful country with the fourth highest GDP per capita and comes in first on the Human Development Index in Europe.

Is it not an act of national self-harm, by leaving the EU with no deal, that instead makes a mockery of the referendum result?

James Manfield​
Lancashire

The obvious conclusion

If Labour does engineer a second Brexit referendum, but Len McCluskey has his way and there’s no option to remain in the EU, a lot of people who might otherwise have voted Labour won’t. Which means they would also lose any general election in the near future and we’d end up with a no-deal Brexit. Duh!

Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell

I’m suspicious of all these good tidings

The latest Norrington Table published by Oxford University concerning its degree classifications is perplexing.

In 2006, only 12 years ago, 20 out of the 30 undergraduate colleges scored less than 70 per cent with the highest score being 75.96 per cent. In contrast, this year’s table shows that only four colleges scored less than 70 per cent, with the highest college score being 82.04 per cent. And this year, too, some 36.8 per cent of the undergraduates obtained a first-class degree. How has this improvement come about in this short period? Are the students brighter or more industrious, or are they better selected and then better taught? Or is it because the academic standards have become more lax because these good results enhance the university’s reputation? There must be some logical explanation to all this.

David Ashton
Kent