Boris Johnson has lied, but it doesn’t mean all politicians do

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

Sir Keir Starmer is right to say that Boris Johnson must resign in the national interest (AFP via Getty)

Ian McNicholas’s letter provides a variation of the gossamer-thin excuse that has been proffered by many supporters of Mr Johnson over the last few years – a bogus moral equivalence.

It goes like this: Boris has lied; Boris is a politician; therefore, all politicians lie – there’s nothing to see here. Shoplifters are criminals; murderers are criminals, but this does not make them in any way equivalent.

Nick Donnelly

Dorset

A government of farce

Sir Keir Starmer is right to say that Boris Johnson must resign in the national interest. But, if he goes, I shall miss watching the spectacle of government ministers tying themselves into knots trying to defend him every time one of his many shenanigans comes to light.

Older readers have probably seen nothing like it since the series of farces staged by Brian Rix at the Whitehall Theatre – appropriately, just down the road from Downing Street.

Roger Hinds

Surrey

Privileged white men

Johnson has never considered himself subject to the rules of ordinary mortals. However, we can add a significant number to the list of privileged white men who agree with that generality and have harmed the UK because of it.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Tony Blair, Nigel Farage, Nick Clegg, Matt Hancock and David Cameron also come to mind.

Will we ever stop giving privileged white men a free pass, especially when it is so detrimental to the rest of us?

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Downing Street recycling

I have to put my empties in a blue bin at the front of my house ready for collection and recycling.

How are all of the empties from the gatherings at No 10 dealt with – or are they secreted out by the same method that they are brought in?

Colin Washer

Worthing

Boris Johnson’s wallpaper

Concerning that gold wallpaper, Gunter Straub suggests a museum. Susan Alexander suggests magnolia emulsion. Surely it has to be whitewash?

David Watson

Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

BBC licence fee

I can imagine we shall hear some bleating from the BBC on the decision to freeze the licence fee. I could save them some money by suggesting they stop paying ridiculously inflated salaries to so-called stars and “celebrity” newsreaders. Many are mediocre, and if they threaten to defect to ITV or Channel 4, then let them go.

Dr Anthony Ingleton

Sheffield

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Katherine Merchant

As someone who has strived to keep fit his entire life and as a follower of Rugby Union, I can state emphatically that I am proud of and in awe of the achievements of Katherine Merchant.

I say this as someone born in the early 1960s, when many sporting opportunities were not really open to women, and also as a man who would be happily eclipsed if she ever graced my gym with an appearance. Good luck to you and your contemporaries.

Robert Boston

Kingshill, Kent