• I HAVE been a Labour Party member since I was 18 and this week I was 87. But on Monday December 13 I resigned my membership.

Why? Because I have been left angry, deeply hurt, and in disbelief at how at my local branch (Highgate ward) the drive to be paperless and only use emails for voting and the insistence, even post-lockdown, for Zoom meetings has left those of us who are less technically able completely cast aside and ignored.

For the past three years, so well before the pandemic, I have been asking that paper communication for voting – at the very least – be reinstated for those who are not able to use computers.

I had offered to pay for this and the postage just to ensure I can remain an active, voting member in the party that has been a part of my life for nearly 70 years. I speak not just for me but for so many who, for whatever reason, are not able to access or use computers.

Many of my friends and neighbours, working class, devoted, Labour Party members for decades, now feel they are no longer wanted, valued or respected by the party.

It saddens me to think that all those years of loyalty to Labour have been met with such a dismissive, couldn’t-care-less response. It saddens me too as this is a party that I and others have remained steadfast to through good times and bad.

Throughout my life I have tried to fight the good fight, in the name of the Labour Party; standing shoulder-to-shoulder on Aldermaston anti-nuclear marches with Michael Foot and many other Labour Party members; as well as participating in campaigns against racism.

While I would do that all again, in a heartbeat, this last chapter in my relationship with the Labour Party is a very sad and sorry one.

But it is indicative of the direction of travel of a party I, and many others, simply do not recognise any more. I speak of the hostility within the branch to frank discussions on Israel and anti-Semitism within the party.

I have found the branch totally blinkered and unable to countenance any opinion that does not chime with the party line. To say it has had a chilling effect is an understatement.

And then there are the deselections of many perfectly reasonable and fair-minded Labour Party members. What is happening within this current iteration of Labour leaves me entirely in despair.

People with opposing views are essentially being ostracised for speaking up and asking questions. This is entirely wrong in a democracy.

The Labour Party needs to do the right thing. It needs to listen to those who now feel entirely disenfranchised. And it needs to act. It should not be turning its back on us with such scant regard.

There will be hard times, and elections, ahead. And then the Labour Party will need every vote to topple this government. But by then so many of us will have left and it will be all too late.

JOY NELSON
Former Labour Party Member (resigned)
Highgate Newtown