Your editorial (2 December) on the Labour victory in the Chester byelection suggests that the swing to the party was not sufficiently large to ensure the seats needed for it to form a government. That is at odds with your suggestion for remedy that Keir Starmer should throw away caution and propose radical policies which would immediately solve the accumulated problems of the economy.
Cautious voters – and they have been cautious in limiting the swing in Chester to less than 14% – will not find any “offer of real redistribution to households with collapsing incomes” immediately on Labour coming to power credible, because policy drafted without consultation with civil servants about means of delivery often backfires owing to unanticipated consequences.
