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Your support makes all the difference.So let me get this right. David Cameron was panicked into the EU referendum in order to save the Tory party from the threat of Nigel Farage and Ukip, and to appease the right wing of that party. So arrogantly confident of winning was he that little or no thought or planning went into the possibility of actually what would happen if the referendum was lost and we would have to leave the EU.
As a result we are now staring into the face of the Tory party being annihilated by Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party. Having consistently put party and individual careers before country the Tories deserve their fate. The UK population does not.
G Forward
Stirling
We need to be told the truth about Brexit
It is difficult to have much sympathy for Ms May but it should be obvious to all that the blame for the Brexit impasse cannot be laid at her door. However, a brave leader would have found a way, difficult though it might be, to explain to 17.4 million people that the problem lies with the missold dream that is Brexit itself. What is even more irresponsible is that the supposed leader of the opposition has also failed in this essential duty.
The one positive outcome might be that the “sales manager” of Brexit, Boris Johnson, becomes the next prime minister. He will then discover the impossibility of delivering on his false promises and similarly meet his demise. The country is in ruins and determination to press on with this folly cannot be in the national interest. We need to be told the truth. “The problem with Brexit is Brexit.” Simple!
Richard Greenwood
Bewdley, Worcestershire
The true cost of British Steel’s closure
I understand the business arguments for not putting more taxpayers’ money into British Steel, but I hope the people who made the decision evaluated and counted the social cost of British Steel’s closure.
What is it going to cost us taxpayers to fund the unemployment and social care benefits to which these steelworkers and their families will now be entitled. I don’t know the answer; I just hope that someone somewhere had the compassion to think about these issues.
Steve Mumby
Bournemouth
Would Johnson be that bad?
Sean O’Grady thinks that Boris Johnson will be no more successful a negotiator than Theresa May has been. I agree, but am I off the planet in thinking that Johnson as PM might not be a disaster? He is the only one with the audacity to say to his supporters, “Sorry chaps, we got it wrong and must revoke Article 50”, and get away with it. I can dream.
Joanna Pallister
Address supplied
Scrap the EBacc
The decision by the Russell Group to scrap its list of “facilitating subjects” is a positive one, allowing the arts and creative subjects to have a far more equal footing for pupils making A-level and undergraduate degree choices. But this does little for pupils in education whose access to creativity has been marginalised at GCSE level by the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and the narrow curriculum it imposes. The EBacc is English literature and language, maths, the sciences, geography or history and a language.
Surely the next step is to scrap the EBacc and invest in the arts becoming once more a central part of a wide-reaching and balanced curriculum. With creativity, critical thinking and complex problem solving becoming the must-have skills for the human workforce of the future, we are doing our children a disservice by denying them access to subjects that actively encourage and develop such attributes.
Richard Bristow, director of music
Wimbledon High School
Shake-up
Single-use plastic set to be banned! Farage pelted with milkshakes! It’s the last straw!
Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell, Shropshire
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