FORTY-one distinguished economists now say that Jeremy Corbyn’s proposals concerning taxation and investment are valid and ‘mainstream’.

They validate his common sense arguments and denigrate George Osborne’s destructive and unimaginative austerity plan.

The Labour party has neutered itself with a succession of potential leaders lacking any real ethos and swaying to populism like straws in the wind. It could be because they aren’t old enough to remember the past, but a lack of imagination doesn’t help their cause either.

This is why Corbyn’s straightforwardness is becoming a force to reckon with. His colleagues have ‘thrown the towel in’ to a Tory ideological assault on the working classes they are supposed to represent. Their lack of resistance shames them and fails to protect the social fabric of this country. We are no longer a two-party nation.

Locally, first-past-the-past (FPTP) now robs the towns of West Dorset of a democratic voice in West Dorset District Council (WDDC) decisions. FPTP has denied 78 per cent of the UK electorate a say in Westminster but would Tory and Labour politicians ever agree to share power through proportional representation (PR)?

I fear they lack the strength of character to cope with it. Good leaders employ challenging deputies. Poor leaders surround themselves with sycophants. Old habits die hard! PR could unite and energise us. FPTP simply disenfranchises the opinions of the vast majority. It produces tyrants who don’t want their arguments tested in debate.

The world is threatened once more with economic melt-down. A UK CEO now earns on average 183-times as much as a worker. After Thatcher, higher-rate income tax levels were scaled down and tax evasion became child’s play. Widespread avarice has resulted in stagnation of growth.

China will get the blame but it’s really due to vast sums of money which used to be circulated back into economies via taxation and investment now being stockpiled by the rich. Many of us know that 'Corbynitis' is worth catching.

We are being scared to death by malicious rumours. Some of your right wing correspondents sneer when they refer to Labour’s ‘tax and spend’. What we should all realise is that this is what gave us a fair society worth living in.

If I was a cartoonist I would be drawing sketches of tower blocks of empty apartments priced at £100 million each. Blood would be oozing from the drying cement and crushed bones and skulls would pattern the concrete. This is our ‘brave new world’ which consumes the masses while one per cent of us measure our worth in celebrity status, unearned bonuses, property and artworks which they hide in safes.

Mike Joslin

Dorchester