Boris Johnson and the hollyhocks in my garden have one thing in common

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There now appears to be no one managing the prime minister (Getty Images)

This year’s hollyhocks are already looking rich and bountiful – and in entirely the wrong place. Each and every one of them, cleverly seeded from last year’s crop (or so I thought), has wedged itself up against the stone path at the very front of the main flower bed where it will not only screen from view every other plant in the vicinity but will, without doubt, fall over into the washing line.

The large leathery hollyhock leaves, knee-high and the size of dinner plates so far, are already in the way of the forget-me-nots and what’s left of the primroses. Hollyhocks are doubtless extroverts and I fear that I will kill them when I move them somewhere where they can’t make a big noise in front of all the other plants.

My plan is to dig them out and replant them against the north-facing fence most visible from the kitchen window. My overactive imagination has them blossoming abundantly, making a quaint-yet-current English display for anyone who might be washing up.

Digging them out is another issue. Suffolk is so dry, even after a night of storm rain last week, it’s hard to get a fork in the ground. I will move them with as much consideration for the titchy hair roots as I can.

It makes me think about understanding situations in which something or someone flourishes. With regard to people, planting someone in a situation where they will produce their best and be happy is a skill that goes far beyond psychometric tests.

As we go forward, there can’t be a more important time to dig out and rearrange the leadership of the country. There appears now to be no one managing Boris Johnson, putting him in the right place for an attention-seeking extrovert. Poor Keir Starmer has grumbling chaos above him and grumbling throwbacks below him. Who’s helping him turn into someone that could be capable of winning an election? Who on earth is writing his speeches? It appears that no one is really in charge of either of the main parties.

Just thinking about the available options brings an uncomfortable weight of hopelessness.

Fortunately, the garden doesn’t care. I’m dead chuffed about both hedges, the copper beech is now a fabulous four years old (when many people told me that it wouldn’t dry out in one), and the mixed native hedge, a typical two-year-old eager to run away with itself in all sorts of directions.

Once again, I feel confident about applying for the national collection of bindweed. It doesn’t care who’s in charge or how many times it’s been pulled, cut, yanked, dug out by the roots or sworn at. It doesn’t care what it’s strangled, which fences it completely dominates, which other climbers it’s bullied into submission. There’s another dominant extrovert for you.

Belinda Moore

Suffolk

U-turns

What’s the betting that the prime minister will announce U-turns on a windfall tax and the uprating of universal credit on the same day as the Sue Gray report is published, thus swamping the media with news and comment options?

John Wilkin

Bury St Edmunds

Fiscal responsibility

As Boris Johnson hides in Chequers, perhaps to create his defence to Sue Gray’s Partygate report, rather than attempt to address the cost of living crisis before parliament’s recess, I am thinking about how his premiership has worked in terms of “levelling up”, and the usual Tory claims of fiscal responsibility, low taxes and law and order.

In April, the Resolution Foundation showed that inflation for the poorest tenth of the country was 10.2 per cent, while for the richest tenth it was 8.7 per cent.

The tax burden is at its highest since the 1950s, although wealthy households have no difficulty paying their share. It’s a different matter for the families who need more resources than food banks can currently supply.

Yet this additional tax revenue could have been saved from irresponsible government spending – remember the failed Track and Trace, useless PPE and fraud and error in Treasury Covid response loans.

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Heading down to mere millions, but concentrating more on this government’s approach to law and order – Priti Patel overrode legal advice on asylum cases, leading to a record £35.2m spent on legal bills for lost cases, plus a further £9.3m to people wrongly held in immigration detention in 2020-21.

All we need are enough Tory MPs to take a similar standpoint – and act on it (rather than politely abstaining from votes which are then won by the government anyway) – and the problem will be solved.

Katharine Powell

Cheshire

Justice for Ukraine

That any western nation should suggest Ukraine should cede any territory as part of a peace deal with Russia is a disgrace.

Russia must exit all parts of Ukraine and pay compensation before any peace deal is agreed or sanctions lifted. Justice must prevail.

J Longstaff

Buxted