Letters | 14 February 2009

Solidarity with the strikers

Sir: As a member of the English working class I write to express my approval of and agreement with Rod Liddle’s article (‘Would the working class vote Labour now?, 7 February). I would compare the action of the strikers with those of the shipyard workers of Gdansk in 1980 whose actions exposed to the world the falseness of the Polish Communist Party’s claim to protect the class it purported to represent. These strikers have shown up New Labour’s pretence that it cares about British workers. Peter Mandelson’s performance was eerily reminiscent of the party hacks who were wheeled out to attack Solidarity.

What must have sent a shiver through the ‘chattering classes’ and mortified Guardian readers was the sight of the strikers displaying the Union flag rather than banners in favour of ‘human rights, multi-culturalism and diversity’. New Labour always raises the issue of the BNP as this is the spectre that haunts them in the night — the fear that the working class will follow the example of the French workers, who now vote in large numbers for the Front National.