I MUST sympathise with Allison Hope’s despond at her Labour Party.

After all, if a political party is not interested in winning power, it is merely a club.

Jeremy Corbyn seems intent on an ideological purification of his party and I am concerned that we will see the de-selection of very sensible hardworking Labour MPs after the conference season.

Will the Labour Party become unelectable?

Non-Conservative voters are horrified at the present debacle.

I can only suggest that people who would prefer an alternative government to the Conservatives join the Lib Dems to continue the fight for a fairer society and social justice.

We are the party of Lloyd George, “one of the great reforming chancellors of the 20th century, introducing state pensions for the first time and declaring a war on poverty”, William Beveridge, who wrote the blueprint for the welfare state [including the NHS], and J M Keynes, author of the influential work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money and best known for Keynesian economics.

While we still have an electoral system based on first-past-the-post, the Conservatives hold on power can only be dislodged by people such as ourselves acting in a concerted way.

Colleen Rothwell

Stroud