The furore over Jeremy Corbyn’s reinstatement is straight out of a Monty Python film

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Labour’s so-called moderates have revealed a self-awareness failure in their blowing a gasket over Jeremy Corbyn’s reinstatement to the party. Predictably they have thrown their toys out of their collective prams and demanded their ball back. Or put another way, they have warned Keir Starmer that they will quit the party if he doesn’t overturn the NEC decision.

This is a scene straight out of Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

These are the same people who have been loudly demanding that the party implement the full conclusions of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report – which bans political interference. Yet as soon as a disciplinary process ends in a result they do not like, they come over all “To hell with that!”, which makes you wonder what kind of “independent” process they would accept. What shameless hypocrisy.

You’d almost think the “moderates” weren’t serious about wanting impartial and just outcomes to disciplinary complaints and had just been cynically exploiting an opportunity in a way that can only be described as, well, political.

But oh how I pray that Starmer calls their bluff.

Julie Partridge

London

Boris like Bertie?

I must protest! Your characterisation of Boris Johnson as quintessentially Bertie Woosterish must have PG Wodehouse turning in his grave.  Roderick Spode, perhaps. I can certainly see Johnson as the would-be dictator with a secret career designing ladies’ underwear but Bertie Wooster is essentially amiable (though mentally negligible) and Johnson just isn’t.

Helen Bore

Scalby

Fuel to independence fire

I read John Rentoul’s column with interest and he is correct in regard to his supposition too, that Johnson states what pops into his head, without considering or even realising the consequences of such inappropriate and divisive statements, just as long as he receives the appreciative cheers.

The break-up of the union would be desperate but this government has added fuel to the SNP fire for independence. We can all vouch that Nicola Sturgeon, like many women leaders, has led a well-informed and strategic fight against Covid-19. She is firm with her electorate and does not go down the crowd-pleaser route, unlike the prime minister.  

Rentoul is also correct that David Cameron, by his agreeing to an independence referendum, set the touch paper alight and now disaffected and disillusioned Scots have not only seen their disenfranchisement from the EU, which the majority voted against, and their devolution rubbished by a British prime minister who just wanted to stir up his troops in his usual casual but explosive fashion.

Judith A Daniels

Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

Mates’ rates rip-off

We ordinary folks understand the principle of getting your pals to do jobs for us, but in the securing of necessary supplies in the Covid crisis, the government and its associates shows a distinct lack of understanding of domestic economics.  

For future reference, when you get “mates’ rates” the bill is supposed to be lower than usual, not many times higher.

Colin Burke

Cartmel, Cumbria

Exams are essential

Although the educational experience of candidates has been disrupted as a result of the pandemic and teacher union intransigence, axing exams next summer is surely not the answer. Such tests give the academic year structure and purpose as a rite of passage, marking the end of one phase of education and graduation to the next.

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone dreads exams. For grammar school pupils from straitened circumstances in the 1950s, the prospect was daunting but the opportunity they afforded to advance was very real.  

Whatever the privilege and wealth of our contemporaries, they still had to compete with us in an examination hall.

Even after decades of grade inflation, exams still teach the skills of time management, mental recall and self-discipline: life lessons that increase in value with the challenge of the subject.  

I note that those who bang on about education being much more than exams see no problem in the sale of sports fields or the cancellation of music instruction.

Dr John Cameron

St Andrews, Scotland  

Tier 4 policing

Brace yourself, Edinburgh, for an influx of Christmas shoppers from tier 4 areas in Glasgow and the west of Scotland. Yes, that’ll be illegal, even though widescale arrests will apparently be a last resort. I’m not suggesting the severe restrictions are necessarily wrong, but are Nicola Sturgeon’s enforcement measures practical? Can our hard-pressed police force really control this, should even a small proportion of tier 4 Scots choose to break the law?  

Martin Redfern  

Melrose, Roxburghshire