We need a national government – one that doesn’t include Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

If only Truss, Sunak and their acolytes could be excluded before they do any further damage. (REUTERS)

I agree fully with Rev Andrew McCluskey in yesterday’s letters that it is certainly time for a national government, an arrangement the country has always made in times of great national crisis.

But we are not fighting a world war (at least, not yet!) in which all political parties would share a goal. Who would lead such a government today? How would a cabinet be formed?

Currently, we have a pretend prime minister, who couldn’t manage to wait until 5 September to zoom off on holiday, and two apparently clueless third-rate, self-serving leadership contenders whose main focus seems to be how best to spit verbal venom at each other while U-turning around various gaffes.

There are many able, decent MPs in all the main parties, who would be more than capable of serving the country at this time in a national government – if only Truss, Sunak and their acolytes could be excluded before they do any further damage.

Sue Breadner

Isle of Man

I empathise with the campaign encouraging people to cancel their direct debits for their energy bills. I understand that for change to happen, sometimes you have to get radical, and I applaud the sentiment behind it when it feels like so little is being done to help. However, I’m gravely concerned about the long-term consequences of not paying energy bills for individuals.

If you don’t pay your bills for months on end and ignore all requests from your energy provider for payment, your provider could issue you with a County Court Judgement (CCJ), which will be kept on record and appear on your credit report.

Unless you pay what you owe within 30 days of receiving a CCJ, it will stay on your credit report for six years, meaning it will be challenging to apply for credit during that time, making it much harder to get a mortgage, loan, credit card or even a mobile phone contract.

For many, borrowing might be the only way to stay afloat during a potential recession, meaning the Don’t Pay UK campaign could make things even harder for the very people it’s trying to help.

Tara Flynn

Personal finance expert and co-founder of energy comparison site Choose Wisely

Energy prices

I disagree with Sunny Hundal’s article about nationalising energy companies, which says that it won’t cut prices. I don’t agree. France has done just that.

I agree that renewable energy is over-regulated but the equipment is also very expensive for ordinary people to purchase. And with gas bills going through the roof, people won’t be able to save for and afford alternative energy products.

My wife and I go to Romania for the winter. It costs around £40 per month to run a modern 30Kw gas condensing boiler nonstop. And it gets a lot colder in Romania – minus 40C in fact

The gas is supplied by Eon. Romania only buys 5 per cent of its gas from Russia, like the UK. Council tax is £25 per year.

The fact is that foreign energy and utility companies are making billions of profits in the UK and both Labour and the Conservatives have let them get away with it. With so many Britons living abroad, they know they pay less for energy abroad and that UK energy prices are among the highest in the world.

Mark Woollett

Address supplied

Eton rugby match

I refer to Tom Peck’s excellent piece yesterday. In summary, it appears that members of the Tory party and certain sections of the press accuse the Privileges Committee “of hounding a former prime minister” who has now stood down, so that should be the end of it.

An analogy could perhaps be drawn from the playing fields of Eton and a game of rugger – a pursuit which was obviously not Johnson’s forte if being felled by a Japanese child in a game of touch rugby is its measure.

A player for Team Tory commits multiple offences which would undoubtedly trigger a disciplinary hearing the consequences of which may well result in a lengthy or total ban from future games. The argument that the consequences of action have been avoided by the disgraced player leaving the pitch, voluntarily or otherwise, is risible.

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He is still in Team Tory, which is itself bound by the rules of the game and, whilst he has left the field in this particular fixture, he is still a member of the club and available for future selection. The rules are the rules.

David Nelmes    

Newport

Water companies

I couldn’t agree more with the Lib Dems. The CEOs of the water companies are being obscenely rewarded for polluting rivers with sewage and doing virtually nothing about very high levels of leaks.

Instead of investing in infrastructure, they are rewarding themselves and their shareholders.

David Felton

Wistaston