Wealth inequality was behind Brexit vote | Letters

Mark Birkett says Brexit is Britain’s ideal opportunity to reset its relationship with capitalism; Michael Heaton delves into Corbyn’s antipathy towards the EU; Patrick Cosgrove likens Jacob Rees-Mogg to Donald Trump

The Guardian persistently fails to understand the core reason for the Brexit vote (This leaked Brexit memo means Labour must make a choice, 30 January); it was never all about immigration; it was always about wealth inequality. That’s it. People who are well off don’t care a hoot where someone is from or the colour of their skin. So, instead of your writers endlessly worrying about Labour’s admittedly equally split take on the issue, can I suggest they take a wider and longer term view of what Labour should be doing?

Brexit is Britain’s ideal opportunity to completely reset its relationship with capitalism, and lead the world while doing it. You don’t have to be some manic red-under-the-bed to see that capitalism has run its natural course. Growth and consumerism as we know it is over. Why? Because the planet simply won’t support it. And the EU is irredeemably capitalist in outlook. So it is not up to Labour to wriggle around Brexit like the Tories do – as if this were some square-peg-in-a-round-hole problem; it is up to Labour to correctly identify the long-term goal of weaning everyone away from the capitalist mindset and to work on positive and statesmanlike manifesto pledges based on a climate-sustainable, cooperative-based and (where possible) equal-pay-for-all economy. And it is surely up to the Guardian to at least voice these ideas. Absolutely no one else is.
Mark Birkett
Rochdale, Lancashire

• Jeremy Corbyn’s antipathy towards the EU is understandable: an unlimited labour supply and freedom to locate factories anywhere in the EU prevents British workers benefiting financially from a growing economy and shrinking population. Except that EU law, if applied, mitigates our attraction to migrant labour: migrants may rely on the host nation’s welfare system for only three months before being economically self-supporting, and must have comprehensive medical insurance before arriving. The fact that we don’t enforce this is our fault, not the EU’s.

If we were to operate EU migration law fully and reinstate the contributory basis of our welfare system as intended by its Labour architects, we’d have a system that supported effort and discouraged sloth, irrespective of nationality, and one that the Labour party could support without reservation. I would re-join the party if they did.
Michael Heaton
Warminster, Wiltshire

• Despite the veneer of public school manners, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s unfounded accusations of politically biased analysis by civil servants (Report, 2 February) is not so different from the crude accusations Donald Trump directs at any public servant whose findings disagree with his own opinions. If this is allowed to continue we are on a very slippery slope indeed.
Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell, Shropshire

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