The previous government would do well to show some contrition

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Wouldn’t it be good if, when those in government made a mess of things, they were quiet for a while, hid themselves somewhere and showed some contrition?

Tony Blair should have done that after Iraq, but he didn’t. Liz Truss should have done it after the lettuce outdid her, but she shamelessly turns up everywhere. And although the Lib Dems did, it was not from choice, but largely because everyone ignored them for a few years after the tuition fees debacle.

Now we have the Conservatives and their media supporters sniping at the Labour government constantly, with Kemi Badenoch smirking every time she asks a question at Prime Minister’s Questions, glowing with pride at her own skill in verbal combat.

Ms Badenoch needs to remember that we know some things about her. We remember that she was recently a member of the government and that her party used its many years in power to bring the country to the point where very little works; no GP appointments today, no NHS dental care for many, potholed roads, a collapsed justice system, a hollowed-out military, working families needing help from food banks, long waits in A&E – I could go on for some time.

Starmer et al haven’t started well and in time we may well feel that sackcloth and ashes are appropriate for them too. But they will have to be pretty bad to be worse than Badenoch and friends.

So would everyone who was a member of the Conservative governments of the last 14 years please go and do some voluntary work and vow that for a decent interval the only word that will pass their lips will be “sorry”?

You had the opportunity and you messed it up. And that goes for you too, Tony Blair.

Richard Warrell

Yealmpton, Devon

Defence spending review

Sean O’Grady wrote in his article that “the chancellor, Rachel Reeves has indicated that any more money for the armed forces will need to be found from elsewhere in the public spending universe, such is her “iron-clad” devotion to the fiscal rules.” (“What will it cost to defend Britain from a growing Russian threat?”, Friday 13 December.)

Surely the time has come for the current defence spending review to examine priorities with the defence budget itself, and consider whether we are not spending too much on nuclear weapons and too little on the very real, conventional warfare threat facing us daily.  

Robert Forsyth

Deddington

Openness and transparency

During the gut-wrenching revelations in the Sara Sharif trial, we must all have hoped that ensuing investigations would be marked by openness and transparency.

This hope was dashed when we learned that the names of the judge and others involved in the decision to transfer custody from Sara’s mother to her father Urfan Sharif would not be disclosed.

For the sake of Sara’s memory – and all the other children killed, abused or molested in recent years – all ongoing inquiries must be done in the light of day.

Andrew McLuskey

Ashford