More bluster and boosterism from a prime minister living in fantasy land

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

My former colleagues, and even late colleagues, will be laughing their socks off at the latest ludicrous suggestion from Boris Johnson (AP)

In the latest boosterish wheeze from Boris Johnson, we learn that some people already struggling on universal credit and housing association tenants could be given the right to buy the houses in which they live.

As the Grenfell survivors still await justice and those living in similarly dangerous properties await the fulfilment of Michael Gove’s much-lauded, unfulfilled promise to hold developers responsible for lethal defects, surely Johnson’s plan couldn’t be to remove expenses and associated problems away from developers and landlords by placing maintenance responsibilities on those happy new owners? Could it?

Time for the 148 anti-Johnsonists and all decent MPs to cast this plan into the duplicitous darkness where it belongs.

Sue Breadner

Isle of Man

Laughing their socks off

I do not know how many people I worked with over nearly 30 years, across several branches, for a high-street bank.

However, there is one thing I am certain of: almost without exception, my former colleagues, and even late colleagues, will be laughing their socks off at the latest ludicrous suggestion from Boris Johnson, that mortgages can be funded from benefits.

I frankly despair.

Robert Boston

Kent

Letting go of the past

With reference to his article on the role of the monarchy, Sean O’Grady misses the point entirely. In a modern democracy, it is simply unacceptable that a particular family can continue to sit as head of state by birthright.

Leaving aside the extra holidays tossed to the great unwashed whenever the Queen fancies a knees-up, the Windsors are largely unaccountable for their actions, and any demonstration of apparent concern by the Queen about the welfare of the nation will always wear very thin when she and the rest of her family are allowed to operate in a protected bubble bursting at the seams with an obscene level of wealth.

It is true that a majority of the population remain happy that we have a monarch as our head of state. Unfortunately, this view is based on a mistaken understanding that the royal family is purely a non-political and impartial entity that turns out for ceremonial occasions and as such is “good for tourism”.

The truth, however, is that the royal family is part of a body of people in the UK who, possessing great privilege and wealth, wield massive influence behind the suited, manicured and spin-spouting political pantomime we are witness to on a daily basis.

We should be concerned that we are not allowed even to access the exchanges that take place between the royal family and government. That we are, by and large, apparently unconcerned about such things is a sad indictment of this nation’s unwillingness to let go of its vainglorious past, when it could look forward to driving a period of radical change. Only in this way can the UK hope to arrest its ever-diminishing role on the world stage.

We should embrace the concept of change and push to achieve a greater elected representation in government – and, in the context of a more sincere form of democracy, the royal family will become even more of an irrelevance.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment, sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

It should be removed from its role of head of state and be replaced with a democratically elected individual who has the experience, wisdom and impartiality to protect an as yet unwritten constitution – something else the nation needs to think seriously about.

J Wells

Alresford

The destruction of Syria

David Harding is right that the war in Syria has faded from international headlines. Many friends who live in Syria are painting dismal portrayals of a nation that was once the jewel in the crown of the Arab and Islamic civilisation.

Food is unaffordable for large swathes of people who are now in dire need of medicine, nutritional support, shelter, clean drinking water and electricity. Years of armed conflict have left the entire country drenched in death, destruction, displacement, drought and socioeconomic ruin.

Whether in Ukraine or Syria, isn’t it time to intervene and stop war crimes against humanity?

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London