Cracking down on anti-monarchy protesters may give republicans what they want

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It is not beyond the realm of possibility that these actions could hasten the end of the monarchy (Getty)

Perhaps people who object to protests in a time of national mourning would be better off adopting a position of aloof disdain and ignoring the signs and comments which do not fit in with their own views.

It strikes me that such a non-reaction would be more quintessentially British than arresting those who protest, which is much more in keeping with a totalitarian state.

The MPs who voted through the flawed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act are responsible for the heavy-handed tactics of police (although these were, after the event, reined in by the Met). These led to considerable attention being given to the protests, and therefore more weight to the anti-monarchy message they proclaimed.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that these actions could hasten the end of the monarchy, since heavy-handed responses often provoke a correspondingly greater backlash than retaining the status quo. Perhaps the new cabinet should take note.

Katharine Powell

Neston

The secret sauce?

The thing that strikes me about the attack on “Treasury orthodoxy” and sacking critical voices and not seeking independent advice, in case that too is critical, is the assumption that the country has suffered collective amnesia. Because we have been here before.

Austerity was an attack on economic orthodoxy; making cutting the deficit the be-all and end-all was an attack on the economic consensus that this was a mad thing to do coming out of a recession. And, of course, this also included slashing corporation tax by 35 per cent, while cutting public spending by eye-watering amounts.

As this didn’t lead the UK to grow faster than comparable economies, in fact, the opposite, you would imagine this would have given the tax-cutting zealots pause for thought. But if you take being voted in by around a third of your own colleagues, and less than half of the tiny, unrepresentative selection of the population who are members of the Tory party, as a mandate to stuff your cabinet with chums, cronies and ideological soulmates, then pausing for thought is probably not high on your agenda.

So although the tax-cutting, lower-public-spending mantra of austerity arguably caused the current crises in health, social care, policing, the justice system, etc, I guess failing better will be the lesson we’ll have taken from “Trussomics” when history is written.

Maybe I’m wrong, and telling the Treasury to make the economy grow by 2.5 per cent, telling the police to cut crime by 20 per cent and telling the Home Office to stop all boat crossing will prove an effective strategy in itself.

Maybe tax cuts will somehow prove the secret sauce without investment, productivity or wages for ordinary workers improving as with Osborne’s cuts, and we’ll head seamlessly to the promised sunlit uplands.

John Murray

Bracknell

Truss and the King on tour

What a wonderful photo opportunity for her to appear in a wide variety of black frocks to accompany that supercilious look Liz Truss wears so well.

Has she managed to solve the crisis crippling our nation’s economy in less than a week? Otherwise, why is she able to desert her post and be seen trailing the royals as our representative?

Diane Stone

East Sussex

Royal liberation

Andrew Buncombe details the many ways the members of the royal family are constrained by their roles.

It has long been my belief that were the royals animals, there would be a militant society dedicated to their liberation

Joanna Pallister

Durham City

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Now is the time to aid Ukraine

Now is the time for the West to go all in and supply whatever Ukraine needs to drive Putin’s military out of their country.  If Ukraine can defeat Putin’s forces in Kherson to anything like their spectacle around Kharkiv and Izium, then Putin’s defeat looks likely. 

And in 1905, 1917 and the early 1990s, military defeat led to regime change in Russia.  Before General Winter comes to Putin’s aid and fixes the front lines, we should be doing everything to help the Ukrainians.  We must act decisively and quickly.

But we should also plan for how we will respond if Putin resorts to weapons of mass destruction or release of radiation from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. And for the possibility either of regime change in Russia or Putin ordering a general mobilisation (despite the risks to his popularity).

Ian Henderson

Norwich