What it means to be a Conservative has fundamentally changed

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The wealth at the disposal of Truss and Sunak results in democracy being flung to the winds (Getty Images)

I have just read Salma Shah’s column in which she maintains that there is nothing wrong with conservative views, and that we should not hold it against people who hold such views.

I have never voted Conservative, but I used to have absolutely nothing against conservatives even though I disagreed with many aspects of their world view. I recall a time when the term “Tory” was shorthand for decent, principled, middle and upper-class people who wanted a sound economy and opposed any changes in the status quo.

Unfortunately, it now seems to be a byword for corruption, inefficiency and radical right-wing opinions, dragged down by the worst government in living memory. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with traditional conservatism, but does it still exist?

Antony Robson

Westbury

Fizz with Liz

So now we learn that Liz Truss failed to declare as a benefit a “Fizz with Liz” (which could not sound more ghastly) schmoozing jamboree held at an exclusive club owned by an ultra-wealthy, Tory-supporting aristocrat, and the costly event was paid for by him.

Apparently the invitations in which the lucky recipients were asked, by Truss, to be her guests at the event meant nothing, because she was just a guest herself and – oh what’s the point? It looks to me like another disgusting example of Tory sleaze.

The wealth at the disposal of Sunak and Truss results in democracy being flung to the winds. The Tory members who get to choose which appalling candidate we must all endure as prime minister have a staggeringly undemocratic power in their hands.

The smugness of this group was encapsulated by the remark made to your journalist by a guest at the Shropshire garden party reported on today. This guest actually said “you can trust us to get it right”. This patronising remark will take some beating, even in the surreal world we now live in here in Britain.

Penny Little

Oxfordshire

A civil rights hero

Following the news of the death of Roy Hackett, why not replace the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol with one of him?

Geoffrey Penn

Attleborough

Water shortages

Further to Donnachadh McCarthy’s article on hosepipe bans in England, I would like to ask why the water companies are not doing more to prevent such actions?

Although water reservoirs are not necessarily the best means of storing water for future use, the last one was built in 1991 and underground sources are becoming more difficult to obtain. Water companies purport to be spending vast amounts of our money on improving various elements of water supply.

However, increasingly the public experiences water shortages mostly in summer time, untreated sewage is regularly dumped into rivers and the sea and there is still vast amounts of water lost through leaking pipes.

It seems that nothing has changed in decades to alleviate the public from sacrificing a normal life. I don’t understand why we pay for water services yet have to suffer when, through inept management of our water supply, water is not available when needed.

With our population increasing year on year, temperatures rising and demand for a survivable, adequate water system growing, why have the water companies not done more to keep pace with the changes?

Very little has been done to improve water services since privatisation compared to the profits made by owners of water utilities, many of whom have foreign owners. Much more has to be done by the government and water companies to improve the services for which we pay and the future.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Dinner party politicians

Thank you for “Pork, Pimms and PMs” – essential reading.

There is something seriously wrong with a system that allows a small number of people to base the selection of our future PM on their suitability for inclusion in an exclusive social event – “You think about a dinner party and you’d have Boris round the table in a flash.”

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In fairness, this criteria was mitigated to some extent by the words: “Of course having someone at your table isn’t the same as trusting them to cook the dinner.”

As a member of a larger constituency which has been force-fed one of Johnson’s disastrous “oven-ready deals” I do not look forward with any great relish to the offerings of his chosen successor.

David Nelmes

Newport

Football finally came home

I send many letters to The Independent and have had some actually published. I notice the same female names appearing more frequently than mine.

Don’t these women realise their place is on the football pitch and letter writing is a man’s work?

Robert Murray

Nottingham