Has politics always been about the art of lying?

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

Boris Johnson has apologised to MPs for allowing the May 20 2020 drinks in No 10 to continue after admitting to being in attendance (PA Media)

Politics is the art of lying. Politicians peddling lies is not new and Boris Johnson is no exception. He lied through his teeth about Brexit with crippling consequences to follow. He inhabits a fantastical realm where the booze party was a work event and where arms are sold to Saudi Arabia and UAE to restore security in Yemen, not knowing apparently about the worst humanitarian crisis in modern times. Tony Blair dragged the UK into a bloody quagmire based on false pretences and caused massive mayhem and social fragmentation. No one should complain. Both liars were the products of the mother of all democracies.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London NW2

Partygate

How on earth did the prime minister’s permanent private secretary have the brass neck to invite over a hundred guests to a drinks party in the No 10 garden without asking the the prime minister’s permission? How was alcohol allowed to be served and workers encouraged to bring their own booze, if everyone was supposed to be working? And why did Boris Johnson’s now wife join him at work with his employees?

If that is what is allowed at No 10, no wonder we are in such a mess and so many of our fellow citizens have tragically died, owing to poor preparations regarding PPE and ventilators, late lock downs, an underfunded NHS etc.

If someone could put these questions to our government ministers, I would be very grateful.

Edward Lyon

Isle of Wight

If Boris Johnson thinks “bring your own booze” is the norm for business meetings at No 10, can we ask what are in the drinks on the table at cabinet meetings? It might explain a great deal.

Gillian Cook

Market Harborough

After recent events, I expect to hear that Boris Johnson doesn’t sweat, as he suffers from a rare medical condition called recurrent lying syndrome.

Dr John H Beaven

Chard

How can I forget 20 May?

I know exactly where I was on the evening of 20 May 2020. I visited my dying mother in a Covid ward at Stratford Hospital. She had caught Covid at Warwick Hospital having been treated for nothing more than a broken ankle earlier in the year.

I visited that night as the nurse in charge said that “the rules on visiting had changed” and it was time to come. I had had no physical meeting with my mother since 9 March because of the rules that were in place. My visit was in full PPE, including mask and gloves, in the evening half-light of a ward where shadows of doctors and caring nurses moved between patients. She was barely responsive at the time of my visit and died two days later.

I can only imagine what it must have been like for those politicians and civil servants enjoying a drink at the Downing Street drinks party.

Nick Brown

Solihull

Bring this Mogg to heel

If Jacob Rees-Mogg, on BBC’s Newsnight, considers one of his own people, Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, to be “lightweight”, it does not take much to imagine what the leader of the House of Commons and his kind think of the rest of us. The sense of entitlement and privilege runs deep within a government that treats the mass of the people with contempt and regards the electorate as no more than a route to power rather than a body that they have been elected to serve. There is plentiful evidence now that once in power, the current government does as much as it can to serve its own, and its acolytes, ends to the detriment of the nation’s safety, security and wellbeing.

Graham Powell

Cirencester

Is it time to recognise the Taliban?

I think we are taking a very misguided stance in not recognising the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the consequent withholding of funds. The longer we isolate this regime the more and more our fears of repression and torture will become a reality. What are we waiting for? Are we hoping for a collapse or civil war? Either of which will ensure more deaths and suffering.

Alternatively, the recognition of their government would give us a strong influential role in its future development. Control of the money tap for the much needed funding to support their infrastructure would be key element in the direction and restoration of law and order. A recognised Afghanistan would not only allow a strong dialogue with the west but equally or more importantly the regional powers.

Peter Smith-Cullen

Dunston