Beergate is a distraction from the liar-in-chief at the helm

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The public won’t fall for those who are trying to draw paralells between a pint during a campaign meeting and endless parties attended by the prime minister (Reuters)

Recently, the groups that benefit from the way things are have had to search for new and subtler tools. The one that works is fake equivalence.

We can only speculate who has harried the Durham police to investigate Starmer having a beer during a campaign meeting but clearly it is meant to join a line in public perception between that and the endless parties attended by liar-in-chief, serial philanderer and part-time racist – the man who was too busy at the start of Covid disentangling from his wife (because Carrie was pregnant) to attend Cobra meetings.

It can be found in royal circles. So, the announcement that the dodgy Duke of York will not be on the royal balcony was conjoined with the news that neither will Meghan and Harry – an implied parallel between being into sex-trafficked young women and fleeing the country because of institutional racism and lack of support.

And – while no one would call the election results anything other than predictable – it’s not quite “the Tories did badly but so did Labour” scenario painted by the media.

Labour have not just been fighting the Corbyn legacy (and, for those of us on the sensible left, the Blair atrocities) but also a very Johnson-friendly media, plus the current popularity of both racism and misogyny in our civilised country.

In that context, we need to extract and extrapolate the results in a more sophisticated manner and recognise the fake equivalence.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Recessions and secessions

If the current election results are an indication of how the general election will turn out, Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland and the SNP in Scotland will be in strong governmental control. It is no secret that both are dedicated to seceding from the UK and rejoining the EU.

With the additional probability that by 2024, we will be in the depths of a recession with tens of thousands laid off work and poverty affecting large swathes of the population, secession would be favoured even more by the people of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Furthermore, were these secessions to come about, many companies large and small would move out of England into one or other of these territories in order to regain free and open access to the vast European markets.

England would thus be left catastrophically depleted.

The only way such a massive calamity can be avoided is for our government in Westminster to open negotiations to rejoin the EU. It is necessary to open these talks before the next general elections and not wait until after calamity has befallen us.

Clearly, Boris Johnson and his Brexiteers would have to go... but the maintenance of the UK must always be given priority over all other matters.

David Lee

Kingston upon Thames

Schoolboy error

What is it about Boris Johnson and primary schools? Are these the only places he feels safe from difficult questions when there is no convenient fridge nearby?

Geoff Forward

Stirling

What goes around, comes around

So, just say Durham police (who erred on the side of caution in not issuing a fixed penalty notice to Dominic Cummings) decide to issue Keir Starmer with a fixed penalty notice on reviewing the “new evidence” – what happens next?

Then, let’s say – if Sir Keir is a man of principle and with a strong moral compass (unlike Boris Johnson) and decides to resign – what happens then?

Well, surely it means goodbye Mr Johnson. And by then, all the other fix penalty notices will have been issued to the prime minister anyway.

If only Conservative central office would realise – what goes around will come around, eventually. The public and voters are not stupid. Especially voters without a strong political allegiance.

Gordon Ronald

Hertfordshire

The long and short of it

Labour’s failure to make a breakthrough in the council elections isn’t down to “Long Corbyn” as the enemies of socialism claim.

It’s because Keir Starmer is so very, very small.

Sasha Simic

London

Economical with the truth

While reflecting on societal changes and musing about the legacies of successive governments, I caught myself wondering whether we are currently undergoing another shift in the way that we view and treat each other.

The legacy of Margaret Thatcher’s administration was undoubtedly to encourage the dog-eat-dog, I’m-alright-Jack approach that is latent in everyone, but which, previously, had been countered by the all-in-it-together spirit, instilled during the conflicts of the first half of the 20th century. The legacy of the present Johnson administration will be untrustworthiness, the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues so obviously indicating that it is alright for anyone to be economical with truth.

Ian Reid

Kilnwick