Boris Johnson is a liar and a ‘say anything’ fantasist. Where are the 40 new hospitals – and where is he?

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WhatsApp messages belonging to former prime minister Boris Johnson have been requested by the Covid inquiry (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Wire)

Steve Barclay’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg confirmed – as if any confirmation were needed – that Boris Johnson, the architect of the fictitious Tory manifesto of the 2019 election that gave these greedy and anti-social people a massive parliamentary majority, is an unconscionable liar and a “say anything” fantasist. Where are the 40 new hospitals and where is he? Not doing the job of an MP the public pays him for.

He is bunking off on multiple holidays or lucrative lecture tours neglecting both parliament and his constituents with no such negligence in collecting the benefit of a publicly funded legal defence, his pay cheque or a future handsome pension. He also nurtures the traditional expectation of appointing cronies of similar merit to top up the already overstocked and unweildy house of lords with more Tory icing; a convention and an institution that should, like himself, be consigned to history.

It is not possible to give him his P45 and terminate these benefits and privileges, the probable fate of a damagingly negligent employee of comparable demerit in the real world; a world whose problems are in no small part of Johnson’s creation. Unfortunately, both he and the ragged remnants of his equally disastrous parliamentary party will, pro tem, be allowed to stumble painfully on dragging their broken promises in their wake and into an inevitable sunset. Their P45s await a general election.

David Nelmes

Newport

What new hospitals?

The 40 “new hospitals” promised by serial liar Boris Johnson in 2020 will not be built by 2030 (or at all).

However, if this Tory only-for-the-headlines fantasy were to come true in our Unicorn Kingdom, there would be no staff to put in them – just like the emergency temporary hospitals set up during Covid. Do you remember those, by the way?

Johnson and Hancock, while helping line the pockets of their mates with Covid contracts, put up unstaffed tents in the same time as China built actual extra hospitals...

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

We forget the maritime at our peril

On 3 September 1939 the day war was declared the SS Athenia was sunk. Five and a half years on, on 7 May 1945, the day Germany surrendered, the SS Avondale Park followed her to the bottom. The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in WW2.

In total, 3,500 allied merchant ships and 175 allied warships were sunk, and 72,200 allied naval and merchant seamen/women lost their lives.

We should reflect on the fact this Battle of the Atlantic memorial weekend that the UK still depends on the sea for over 95 per cent of its imports and exports, 50 per cent of its food and 45 per cent of its energy requirement.

We forget the maritime at our peril.

Yours aye

Admiral Lord West of Spithead

House of Lords

What happened to traditional values?

Volker Turk’s article on freedom to protest highlights several evils, but the article is one-sided. All the restrictions on protest mentioned are on activities practised predominantly by the left. I fly no flag for the right, especially the extreme variety, but I note that people who adopt traditional views of sexuality and lost their jobs in the process passed without comment in Volker’s article.

There has been the occasional arrest for thought crime, though thankfully no one has been convicted. I also note that on some occasions anti-abortion protesters have been arrested for praying. Surely, arresting people for thinking and praying is a serious infringement of liberty and dignity.

Francis Beswick

Stretford