It’s time for the Tories to get out of office and into the history books

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

The great British public will not be hoodwinked yet again by the same rubbish from the last 14 years (Reuters)

It really does sum up today’s politics that the Tory party, who are responsible for increasing the nation’s tax burden to a record high, are now telling us we can only trust them when it comes to lowering tax. They even have the audacity to publish a tax-cutting manifesto – now that’s barefaced cheek!

Their other main prong of attack is stating that this election is all about “the future”. We should not look back at the dismal Tory record. Why? because none of it was their fault and the only party you can trust going forward is, of course, the Tories...

Surely the great British public will not be hoodwinked yet again by this rubbish?

It is time for this nonsense to end and for us to boot them out of office and into the history books, once and for all.

Paul Morrison

Glasgow

High calibre candidates

Kate Devlin’s recent article was a revelation. It offers an enlightening view of the calibre of Reform UK, their candidates and their leadership straight from the horses’ mouths.

Regarding their candidate selection, Richard Tice has said Reform is “really pleased with all candidates”, while Nigel Farage claimed the party has “put in place a good vetting programme”. 

Yet it seems the well-vetted candidate Ian Gribbin, who is standing in Bexhill and Battle, appears to be a fan of Adolf Hitler. Moreover, he has described Vladimir Putin, a man who cannot leave Russia for fear of arrest over war crimes in Ukraine, as a man displaying “a maturity we can only dream of”.

I presume the “we” refers to the party he represents, Reform UK, its leaders and its hand-picked candidates? If the opinions he has expressed on women are accurately stated, then he also appears to be a misogynist of some stature.

I trust the voters of Clacton, Bexhill and Battle will be suitably unimpressed and I doubt Gribbin’s comments are likely to go down well with the majority of the wider electorate.

It might be a good time for Reform UK to explain their policies, beyond the singular intent of damaging the Tory party in a public school face-off.

David Nelmes

Newport

A dishonest approach

The Conservatives’ progressive reductions in national insurance rates, taken together with the freezing of income tax thresholds, amount to a stealthy transfer of the overall tax burden from lower-paid employees towards better-paid employees and better-off pensioners.

There are good arguments in favour of this shift, but it would be more honest to explain the strategy rather than try to pretend that taxes are being reduced. The Labour Party may well agree with this transfer but is unlikely to endorse it as both parties are understandably terrified of upsetting those who will contribute more as a result.

John Wilkin

Bury St Edmunds

How stupid do they think we are?

The Tories are launching their election manifesto with the promise of more tax cuts and national insurance reductions, which they hope will fool the public into giving them another term in office.

I can’t believe the front these people have. After 14 years of mismanagement, after the thousands of people that have been affected by broken promises, after the disgrace our last three prime ministers have brought to this country – they think we can put that all aside for a few tax cuts and promises they never keep! How stupid do they think the country is?

Paul Atkins

Burntwood

We cannot allow the memory of the Holocaust to be misused

The co-founder of Human Rights Watch, Aryeh Neier, has recently said that Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza. He’s also said that using accusations of antisemitism to attack Israel’s critics “debases the whole concept of antisemitism”. As Holocaust survivors, we are writing to agree wholeheartedly with Neier – who himself only survived the Holocaust by escaping Nazi Germany as a child in 1939.

At a recent Holocaust memorial, Benjamin Netanyahu declared “We’ll defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now.” Meanwhile, at another memorial, Joe Biden warned of a “ferocious surge of antisemitism” on college campuses.

In our opinion, to use the memory of the Holocaust like this to justify either genocide in Gaza or repression on college campuses is a complete insult to the memory of the Holocaust.

The dehumanisation of Palestinians, the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, indiscriminate bombing, the destruction of universities and hospitals, and the use of mass starvation – are clearly stages of ethnic cleansing and genocide. They cannot be defended, any more than sending weapons to commit this genocide or refusing funding to UNRWA can be defended.

With no better arguments, our politicians have resorted to misusing the memory of the Holocaust while claiming that protesting against Israeli genocide is somehow antisemitic.

As Holocaust survivors, we have no special authority on the Middle East, but we do know about antisemitism. It’s simply wrong to claim that it’s antisemitic to oppose Israeli genocide. It’s also wrong to claim that calling for equal rights for Jews and Arabs “from the river to the sea” is antisemitic.

As Holocaust survivors, we are just a few individuals – but we want to add our voices to the growing global movement to demand a permanent ceasefire, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and for the West to stop arming and supporting genocide.

Jacques Bude - Brussels, Marione Ingram - Washington DC, Stephen Kapos - London, Rene Lichtman -Detroit and Suzanne Berliner Weiss - Toronto