Clarity, treachery and silence 2

If anyone is still confused about the ideology behind Labour's project, they should read "Blair bets all on wooing rebels" ( THES , January 9).

Wendy Piatt of the Institute of Public Policy Research informs us that the higher education bill and its proposals for variable fees is all about "tackling the last nationalised industry in Britain" and advancing the Thatcherite revolution. Coming from a former adviser to this government, it is difficult to imagine a clearer indication of how the Labour Party has abandoned socialist ideas of equality and social justice in favour of a warmed-up market liberalism of 1980s (or possibly 1920s) vintage.

However, let us not give up hope. Maybe such forthrightness might wake up those craven Labour MPs who have acquiesced in the new Labour takeover and persuade them to reject the bill and grasp back the party from those who have turned it into an SDP Mark II.

Tony Dennis
Leighton Buzzard