The battle over Covid was lost in Boris’s Eton mess of an education

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Crises cannot be put on hold while our leaders receive ‘catch-up’ lessons (Getty)

Listening to the testimony given to the Covid inquiry during the week has raised profound concerns about the ability of our country to deal with such crises. To hear Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty describing their attempts to brief the then prime minister was disturbing, to put it mildly.

Explaining exponential growth, viral mutation, and the human immune response to a person who “gave up science at 15” would challenge even the most imaginative teacher.

In my mind, I pictured a scene similar to that in the TV series Father Ted, where Ted attempts to explain to Dougal why the cows in the field appear small because they are far away.

The 21st century will undoubtedly throw up many crises for our leadership to deal with. The consequences of global warming and viral pandemics will certainly be high on the list of possibilities. To have a leader who lacks the skill to comprehend the complexities of scientific issues must not happen again. Crises cannot be put on hold while our prime minister receives “catch-up” lessons!

Our country needs to be led by first-class minds who have been broadly or, dare I say, comprehensively educated. It appears that, 40 years ago, Eton was having trouble, regardless of the cost of getting in. Waterloo may have been won on the playing fields of Eton but Brexit and Covid were lost in the classrooms!

John Dillon

Birmingham

Tax cuts won’t fix this country

As John Rentoul rightly points out today, if we want better public services, money has to be raised from taxation. We can’t just carry on borrowing indefinitely.

Obviously, in these troubled times, anyone who, for whatever reason, is struggling to make ends meet should pay less tax. But there are not a few, businesses and individuals, who are obscenely wealthy, often undeservedly, and who could be separated from their millions or billions to the benefit of society. And there are plenty of us in the “comfortably retired” category who would be able and willing to pay more in tax.

But politicians from both the largest parties persist in the fiction that all will be well and taxes need not be raised if the economy grows. Presumably, their prime objective is the short-term one of power acquisition – they fear the loss of financial support from the wealthy and the loss of electoral support from many others. Meanwhile, the NHS, care services, prisons, schools, and many other public services continue to deteriorate.

Can our leaders really be that shortsighted? Or can we Brits really be so mean-minded?

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

Brass neck Braverman

So, with Jeremy Hunt’s budget statement little more than 24 hours old, along comes Suella Braverman to reignite the Tory civil war.

Even with the new home secretary under pressure over derogatory comments heard in the House of Commons, our Suella couldn’t contain her excitement.

Yet, the fact of the matter is that, while the government’s failure to make asylum decisions is costing the taxpayer £4bn per year, the 65 per cent increase in work migration and 156 per cent increase in health and social care visas were on Braverman’s own watch and happening just as Rishi Sunak was promising to “stop the boats”.

This simply underlines how the Tory party has failed over their 13 years of rule. We desperately need fresh investment under a new Labour government.

Geoffrey Brooking

Havant

The law of supply and demand

The news that net migration to the UK has been revised upwards by a further 150,000 to 700,000 people last year – is being treated as a “surprise”, but is it really a surprise to the government?

All countries can control how many people they are willing to accept, and those that tend to have the highest quality of life indices, such as New Zealand, have a very high bar for new arrivals.

Our government may try to cover up its policy (which of course has no democratic mandate as it has been purposefully obscured), but, for the last 20 years, it has been actively encouraging migration to increase the population with a very determined open door policy. The reason? This is explained by the old adage “follow the money”. Those still calling for more immigration are big businesses.

As Eddie George, governor of the Bank of England said in Feb 2017 – immigration has been effective in keeping wages down and inflation down. In other words – and as we observe every day – lower and middle-income groups are getting poorer and the wealthy are getting richer.

It’s the law of supply and demand, and you can’t argue with that – what one can argue about is whether this is a good policy for the majority of the public.

Jane Evans

Aylsham

A small step forward, but it won’t rebuild Gaza

We must not overlook the salient fact that people who survived the war so far are likely to see their lives and livelihoods irreparably damaged from exposure to a lifetime of traumatic experience. This excruciating upheaval will have long-lasting societal impacts, severe childhood deprivation and a catastrophic nutritional crisis.

Sanitation services have collapsed. Hospitals are no longer functioning due to a dearth of water, fuel, food, electricity and medical equipment, leading to disease outbreaks that are life-threatening.

The destruction of Gaza, hatred, and polarisation will never bring the security Israel craves. Only the prioritisation of human rights and the implementation of international humanitarian law will ensure peace for future generations.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London