The mistake Peter Hennessy makes in his response to the rise of Jeremy Corbyn is understandable: he is a prisoner of the London political and media bubble and he interprets the present situation in the Labour Party too doggedly through the lens of the past (“Unlike the 1980s, the hard Left has captured the party apparatus”, Column, 1 October).

This year, I have met dozens of people who, like me, have rejoined Labour after years of disillusionment with Blairism: the privatisation and degradation of health, prisons, social care and education; the introduction of university tuition fees; the obscenity of Iraq; the neglect of the regions; and the growth of social inequality and insecure employment practices.