Staff implicated in the Shrewsbury maternity scandal report should be sacked

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

Until individuals find that their gross incompetence or carelessness will lead to early dismissal, there is little incentive to learn (Getty)

I am staggered that the Ockenden report never states that anyone – midwife, doctor or manager – has been sacked as a result of the events at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust.

Until individuals find that their gross incompetence or carelessness will lead to early dismissal, there is little incentive to learn.

The report highlights a lack of staff. Would you want to join an organisation with such a reputation?

David Fleming

Stonehaven

Abortion care

That MPs have voted to make “pills by post” abortion permanent is an absolute disgrace.

Thousands of women have suffered as a result of abortion without proper medical oversight, and will continue to suffer, just as many warned the government of the dangers of giving women “choice”.

Do MPs not care about the suffering they will cause, or that they may be complicit in murder? The government promised DIY abortions were only temporary to cope with Covid restrictions and would be reversed as soon as possible. Is there no moral character in parliament?

J Longstaff

Buxted, East Sussex

Smirking hyenas

I watch and listen to the elected politicians in Ukraine every day in the media and marvel at the intelligence and commitment they display towards their nation and their people. Such dignity and clarity of purpose in time of need.

I then compare them to the incompetent gang of smirking hyenas occupying the front bench of our elected government in Westminster, and the back bench braying like sheep at their leader’s next preposterous lie.

All the while, children in this country are approaching starvation as if we are being transported back to the 1930s. Are we really prepared to let this government remain in power?

Bill O’Hara

Address supplied

Law and order

If Partygate has taught us anything, it is that Boris Johnson’s words and actions (and lack of honourable actions), have consequences. For they have brought clarity to one of the Conservative Party’s previous bedrock policies; namely law and order.

I, like many, had previously assumed that the “order” part meant the maintenance of the unseen regulations that bind society within a healthy and functioning framework.

How wrong I was! Apparently, what Johnson has managed to do is illuminate that the “order” part of law and order actually refers to the order of priority, with far more draconian scrutiny and reparations applied to the lower echelons of society, scaling back to a “light touch” – or seemingly negligent approach – for those in the “ruling classes”.

So perhaps, in light of this, the “one rule for them, another rule for us” mantra should be updated. It is becoming obvious that actually, it’s “one rule for them, and hundreds of other rules more vehemently and perniciously applied to us”.

Nigel Plevin

Somerset

Party-going gander

The No 10 spokesman said Vladimir Putin’s words would be judged by his actions. What is sauce for the Kremlin goose is sauce for the party-going Downing Street gander.

Christopher Hall

Banbury

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Boozy Brexit?

How did the government get Brexit so wrong, with, for example, red tape on trade with the EU pushing up the cost of living and trade deals detrimental to animal welfare?

Were the parties in Downing Street and across Whitehall more widespread than reported, leaving those taking forward Brexit so blotto that they didn’t know what they were doing?

Roger Hinds

Surrey

Untapped resources

The government’s reluctance to support onshore wind as an energy source is only part of the story.

This country has other untapped resources which it has declined to develop such as tidal and wave. Both have been considered in the past but insufficient funds have been given to the projects.

We have wind turbines because other countries have put money into their development. If it was just the UK alone, I am not confident that we would be so advanced.  As a country, we seem to have lost our 19th-century spirit.

Richard Matthews

Northampton