London MP's tone was '˜patronising'

I was astonished by the patronising tone of the man, a London MP to boot, whom I would venture to suggest has little, if any, knowledge of the North East or its people.

He, at least, has that in common with most of his fellow metropolitan ilk.

He said that successive governments have failed to equip people “with the skills they need to get on in a modern economy”.

Outrageous!

He seems to be suggesting, albeit obliquely, that we simple northern folk are not intelligent enough to form valid opinions about immigration or perhaps anything else, and that such matters are best left to him and his highly-educated elite.

Such an approach seems to be symptomatic of why Labour is struggling so much at the moment.

The same attitude was displayed recently by Mr Wright, our esteemed Hartlepool MP, after the referendum, suggesting that we were all wrong but he supports our ill-informed judgement anyway.

Mr Lammy, along with all of us, has views about immigration and the role immigrants play in our economy.

And it is certainly the case that, after the decimation of traditional industries, many communities are finding it hard to catch up.

To suggest, however much it is wrapped up in parliamentary speak, that we cloth-capped northern simpletons are wrong in our views by virtue of where we live, so far from London, is one reason why Labour will lose the next election, unless it stops such insulting and patronising diatribes and listens to those who aspire to support it.

Of which I am one.

Tim Moss,

Seaton Carew.