Governments should govern – but the Tories are fighting like wildcats

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The rest of the world must be looking on in disbelief at the mess into which they are dragging us (PA)

How much longer must the public watch the utterly discredited Tory party tear themselves apart? Governments are there to govern in the interests of the people, not fight like wildcats to maintain their prestige, and their seats.

The rest of the world must be looking on in disbelief at the mess into which they are dragging us, ever deeper each day.

Surely there must be a way a general election can be triggered so that we can rid ourselves of this pestilential gang of has-beens? Have we been manoeuvred into such a straitjacket that only when they allow it may the British public vote for what they actually want?

Penny Little

Great Haseley

Lunatics running the asylum

Twelve years ago, we had a Labour government that had overseen steady growth and low inflation for 12 years. The health service was the best it had been for a long time. President Obama credited the UK as having led the world out of a financial crisis caused by lack of regulation which the Tories said needed even more relaxation. International measures said we had improved equality and child poverty.

Since then we have had 12 years of vicious austerity and Brexit – which have achieved nothing. Now we seem to have lunatics running the asylum.

Jim A

Maidenhead

A Braverman nightmare

We had just finished watching ITV’s The Walk-In, a dramatised documentary about neo-Nazi terrorist organisation National Action and their incitement of hatred of immigrants.

This was followed by the news where we saw the home secretary, Suella Braverman, giving a speech, described today as “nasty, vile and chilling”, which was similarly inciting hatred against immigrants.

She may be having dreams, but she is our worst nightmare.

G Forward

Stirling

A party divided

Liz Truss is dividing and fragmenting the Tory party, as previous colleagues and allies now turn on her. She is attempting to force through massive changes for which she and her dogmatic rump of a government have no mandate.

In the recent Conservative Party leadership election, only 57 per cent of members voted for Liz Truss to be leader. Truss has a weaker Tory mandate than David Cameron, Boris Johnson or Iain Duncan Smith.

Despite that, she has chosen to exclude any MPs who supported Rishi Sunak from her government. She has thus made an already restricted Tory government even more constricted by dogma. Loyalty is her primary concern in selecting cabinet members; ability and competence are a distant second.

Effectively, she is now left with a dogmatic rump of Conservative MPs, out of touch with her wider party and the country as a whole. She is adopting extreme right-wing economic policies, unconnected to political reality or even the real world. In the recent tax-cut debacle, she apparently did not even consult with her cabinet.

The illusion of power seems to have gone to her head. A prime minister only remains in power if they control a majority within the House of Commons. They work with a cabinet of colleagues – the prime minister being first among equals. Liz Truss seems to imagine that we have a presidential system, that she can make executive decisions independently. Political reality has shattered that illusion.

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Can the Tory party survive Liz Truss before suffering a devastating electoral defeat?

Andrew Milroy

Trowbridge

Shh! Don’t mention Brexit

The constant Tory refrain is that the economic crisis is down to the war in Ukraine, to Covid, and to supply-chain issues. Clearly.

Brexit is never mentioned by Liz Truss with its resulting impact on trade with the continent and the loss of so many good quality staff. However, why is it not highlighted by more political commentators, or the opposition, in very loud voices?

It seems to me that our economic demise pivoted on the 2016 disaster – not to mention our rapidly declining international status.

Chris Evans

Teddington