Section:GDN 1J PaGe:6 Edition Date:190801 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 31/7/2019 17:15 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian Thursday 1 Aug ust 2019
6 Letters
As CEO of the national charity
Rett UK, which supports families
aff ected by the rare and devastating
neurological disorder Rett
syndrome, and mum to 24-year-
old Rosie who has Rett syndrome,
I fully support the case for learning
disabilities doctors ( Letters , 27 July).
Hospital admissions are extremely
stressful for people with complex
needs and their families. When you
are dealing with a disorder like Rett
syndrome, invariably the GP has
never heard of it; a paediatrician may
recall reading about it in a text book.
The parent has to become the expert.
Once young people leave the
relative comfort of children’s services
where care is overseen by a specialist
paediatrician, their care is transferred
to their GP. The GP will have had very
little to do with this young person.
Transition still remains hugely
problematic. Th e key missing pieceCampbell, Corbyn and
Labour’s election hopes
People with learning disabilities
deserve joined-up medical care
I was born in 1931 in the small
German town of Meiningen, famous
for its theatre, much like Stratford-
upon-Avon. Its mainly middle-class
citizens were deeply disillusioned,
tired of the in fi ghting of the political
parties. Germany seemed to be in a
state of disintegration, crying out for
reconciliation. People were drawn to
a charismatic, unconventional power-
hungry leader who promised what
they wanted to hear. I know history
never quite repeats itself, but the
analogies are frightening.
The single issue was the
exceptionalism ( Opinion , 29 July), the
superiority of the German race. The
good, mainly churchgoing citizens
easily voted his Brown Shirts on to
the regional council. Two years later
they voted nationally in suffi cient
numbers to enable Hitler to seize total
power. It was all perfectly legal, too
late to eff ectively protest. Dissent
was now treason (think the DailyBoris Johnson and a
warning from history
Double
bubble
‘A photo of my
son James taken
at Camp Bestival
in Dorset’
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these pageswin an election”? If Labour did so,
it risks failing to win the crucial
30-odd marginal leave-voting
constituencies from the Tories and
also losing to them 30 Labour-held
marginals that voted leave in 2017.
The position recommended would
deny Labour all these marginals and
destroy its chance of winning an
election; and almost guarantee the
return of a Johnson government.
Bryn Jones
Bath- Alastair Campbell states his concern
with, among other issues, Jeremy
Corbyn’s stance on Brexit. As a Labour
party member I agree, but I appreciate
how diffi cult an issue it is for the
party given the numbers of Labour
voters who want to leave the EU. I also
wonder how New Labour under Tony
Blair and Gordon Brown and advised
by Campbell would have reacted
given their instinct for triangulation
when confronted with diffi cult
polling data. Perhaps Alastair should
refl ect on New Labour’s record on
joining the euro, the key EU issue of
the day , which was ducked because of
hostile public opinion whipped up by
the Tory right despite fi rm evidence
of the prospect of increased trade
with the eurozone and increased
though modest growth in GDP.
Steve Flatley
Yo rk - If Labour loses the next election,
it will be largely due to the ongoing
lack of support from people like
Campbell, who has chosen to
undermine him at every step,
Why are people not receiving a fl u
jab despite their risks of respiratory
infection? Why do swallowing
problems go unrecognised?
The care of these problems is left
to GPs. However, primary care is
under intense pressure. GPs always
intend to provide excellent care
but most have had little training in
learning disability. The chances of
your care being managed by the same
GP has fallen markedly. Imagine
being the learning disabled patient
with complex problems such as
communication problems, visual
disability, swallowing diffi culty,
mobility problems, constipation,
epilepsy and recurrent aspiration
pneumonia. A specialist physician
in learning disability would assist
shared understanding, manage
complex medication interactions
and support the person and family in
the maze of medical management;
and, importantly, be a support to
primary care in both training and
research development.
Dr Kirsten Lamb
Chair , GP learning disability special
interest groupWell said, Aditya Chakrabortty
( Labour risks total wipeout if it
fails to see Johnson threat , 31 July).
He lists three priorities: second
referendum and remain; spend
focused on those most in need;
and address the traditional Labour
heartlands that have been hardest
hit by years of Tory austerity.
There are other priorities, too,
but I would highlight just one, a
fourth, which again is integrally
connected to Chakrabortty’s points:
democratisation. Isn’t this the
moment to grasp the nettle and to
reconfi gure our failing democracy?
Local government has been crushed
and must be reinvigorated. The Lords
must be replaced by a democratically
elected second chamber. The fi rst-
past-the-post electoral system has
passed its sell-by date: time for
proportional representation. And of
course there’s more : Labour should
commit to wholesale constitutional
reform having initiated citizens’
assemblies to fl esh out the details.
The coming general election is
a real “1945 moment”, or could
be if Labour wins. The thought of
losing is simply unbearable.
Jol Miskin
Sheffi eld- Alastair Cambell’s editorship of
the New European seems to have
clouded his previous electoral
intelligence ( An open letter to
Corbyn: why I have to quit your
party , 30 July). Could he explain
how embracing the remain and
referendum position he advocates
would make Labour “poised to
in the jig saw is one person who will
take the lead in providing holistic,
coordinated care and treatment.
A learning disability doctor is that
person. Someone who has had the
training, interest and motivation
to champion care for people with
learning disabilities. Someone who
understands you cannot treat one
area in isolation without having an
understanding of how it can impact
on other co-morbidities.
Becky Jenner
CEO, Rett UK- It is important to recognise the
complex physical health problems
experienced by people with learning
disabilities. It is heart breaking to read
the stories of what led to their deaths.
Why are there so many avoidable
deaths from constipation? Why
are people bouncing in and out of
hospital with recurrent pneumonia?
rather than capitalise on Corbyn’s
initial success in attracting several
hundred thousand new members
and promoting policies which appeal
to principled and idealistic younger
voters. When Labour is the only
party with a hope of creating a fairer
and better society, why does the
Guardian persist in giving Campbell
column inches, even on the front
page? With his support for the Iraq
war, dodgy dossier, Tory-lite policies
and abrasive style, Campbell seems
to me to have done more real harm
to the Labour cause than Corbyn.
Eleanor Ellington
Bath- A Labour party without Campbell
is like a Republican party without
Richard Nixon: improved. Campbell
should refl ect on how Blairite
neoliberalism, making only minor
changes in the Thatcher-era political
settlement and proclaiming itself to
be “ intensely relaxed about people
getting fi lthy rich as long as they pay
their taxes ” while allowing instant
access to Britain for low-skilled
workers from the EU accession
countries of Bulgaria and Romania
to delight New Labour’s friends
in business , meanwhile assuming
Labour’s traditional voters had
nowhere to go, has brought us to
the current situation.
Christopher Clayton
Chester
Mail). My father’s parents were Jews.
Outcasts now (think our non-Brits), a
few years later we had no choice but
to fl ee and my grandmother to take
poison. I pray for our PM and hope
that I am needlessly crying wolf.
Canon Dr Paul Oestreicher
Brighton- The unelected PM’s decision
to abort the inquiry into Britain’s
complicity in both torture and its
outsourcing ( Editorial , 29 July)
is testament to the hypocrisy of
the British ruling class and to its
shameless brutality.
Professor Bob Brecher
University of Brighton - Why is Boris Johnson so against
the backstop? It is only going to be
in place until “other methods” are
implemented to ensure a “frictionless
border” on the island of Ireland. If
Johnson is so sure that such methods
exist and are implementable, then
what is his problem? Unless, of
course, he’s telling porkies.
Pat Kennedy
Cork, Eire
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letters-termsAlastair Campbell’s
editorship of the
New European seems
to have clouded his
electoral intelligenceBryn Jones- Campbell says Labour has been
“ taken over by people who until
recently were communists, they were
Stalinists, and they still are ”. Such
ideologies are anathema to me and
I’m sure to the thousands of other
members who simply want to see
policies that are rooted in fairness
brought back to mainstream politics.
Policies not like PFI, created by Blair,
but proper state ownership of the NHS
and social care. Policies like public
ownership of utilities (that we all once
owned before they were stolen by
Thatcher) that plough profi ts back into
investment into the service instead
of giving dividends to shareholders,
policies like fair taxation properly
enforced, policies that redress the
imbalance in funding between
private and state education. These
are policies that Attlee (onto whom
Campbell projects his view) would
advocate, not fear. These are policies
that would benefi t the majority of
citizens and not just the wealthy.
Andy Burge
Hertford - “Remember Iraq?” ( Letters , 31 July)
has became the kneejerk riposte to
anyone referencing the pre-Corbyn
era. Yes, I remember Iraq. But I also
remember three consecutive Labour
landslide election victories, when
the defeat of the Tories meant peace
in Northern Ireland, hospital waiting
lists down, education spending up
and knowing that a Labour vote
actually meant something.
Linda Evans
London - Alastair Campbell sets out
eloquently how thousands of us feel.
We have become disenfranchised by
the small cults leading both Labour
and the Conservatives. Please,
Guardian, do not abandon us too.
Jonathan Harris
Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire
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