A temporary Big Ben bong for £100,000? Ludicrous

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The temporary Big Ben ‘bonging mechanism’ was used just 10 times (PA)

You report that MPs felt it acceptable to spend £100,000 on a temporary “bonging mechanism” for Big Ben, which was used just 10 times.

Did any of them realise that a recording played over disguised speakers would have the same effect and be cheaper? Or was another sort of bong involved while they made this ludicrous decision?

Kartar Uppal

Sutton Coldfield

The Sue Gray report

If Sue Gray is the paragon that we have been led to believe and is forced to withhold parts of a potentially damaging report, perhaps the honourable thing would be for her to resign and pass the unredacted report to the press.

If the full report is damaging to Boris Johnson, and there is an attempt to prosecute her under the Official Secrets Act with possible loss of pension or worse, there would be a universal outcry, which would almost certainly be fatal to Johnson.

This report could be of national importance and should not be withheld by bureaucratic niceties, procedures at Scotland Yard or even collusion between Downing Street and the Met.

Gavin Turner

Norfolk

Those with the power to do so must ensure the Sue Gray report is published in full for all to see so that our shameless prime minister is removed from office as soon as possible. As has been stated elsewhere, there is no reason for the report to be held back in any of its particulars – other than to save the prime minister from proper scrutiny.

To spell it out: the issue is not about parties, it is about misleading parliament and breaking the ministerial code. Boris Johnson is unfit for office and those who have the power to act in the nation’s interest should play their part on our behalf by, in the first instance, pressing for the publication of the full Sue Gray report with no redactions.

Graham Powell

Cirencester

Cyclist safety

The new Highway Code aims to make the roads safer for cyclists. What would help in achieving that objective is to make it mandatory for them to have lights, to indicate their intention to turn right in front of vehicles and stop at red traffic signals.

And while we’re complaining, keep adult cyclists off the footpaths!

Pamela Hibbert

Crowthorne

Brexit lies

The government is going to raise a one-off £39bn for the NHS by imposing a tax burden skewed to impact the poorest. What happened to the £350m per week we were going to get back after leaving the EU, which would have brought in a staggering £18.2bn every year for the health service?

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Even the more realistic net figure would have dwarfed the proposed rise. Add to that the Brexit bonus and all those promised “world-beating” trade deals, and we should by now be implementing massive tax cuts for all. Maybe we need a senior civil servant to investigate if any lies were told pre-Brexit – preferably before the Met gets involved.

G Forward

Stirling

Any skills at all?

In your editorial discussing the various candidates likely to put themselves forward for Conservative Party leadership and prime minister, you state that Johnson had “the wrong skills to deal with a pandemic”.

Forgive me for asking the blindingly obvious, but does he have any skills at all?

Ian Wingfield

Bamford, Derbyshire