Rishi Sunak’s statement that, “our politics must again put the long-term interests of our country before the short-term political needs of the moment” is rather baffling.
Granting oil and gas licences and curbing green policies would appear to be aimed at short-term political needs rather than doing much for the long-term benefit of the country. I would have thought that our long-term interests would be in mitigating the risks of severe droughts, flooding, sea level rise, over 40C heat, mega storms or the potential collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) turning our climate into that of Moscow’s.
Dealing with those possibilities would be orders of magnitude more expensive than moving away from a fossil-fuel-based economy.
Dr Ian Robertson
Milton Keynes
Water-down economics
The prime minister’s decision to “water down” commitments to net zero by abandoning environmental policies confirms yet again that we have a government without vision or conscience, and no concern for the wellbeing of future generations.
The government’s only concern is how to weaponise green issues for its own short-term electoral gains and stoke the culture war in the run-up to the next general election.
Meanwhile, I read Rory Stewart’s compassionate and pragmatic evaluation of what we should do to overcome world poverty and despair that serious politicians, of vision and conscience like him, were driven out of government by those whose single purpose was (and still is) to maintain themselves in power so that they can serve their own short-term ends.
Anyone with any doubts about how we are governed should read Politics on the Edge, Stewart’s account of his despair at the shallow and purposeless workings of the party in government that has blighted our nation for 13 interminable years. The longer they continue in power, the less chance we have of making those radical changes over the environment and international relations that are urgently needed to protect the future for our children’s children.
Graham Powell
Cirencester
Off the rails
Does our current government understand business at all?
It has wrecked local government services, is allowing our roads to disintegrate and causing huge damage to the underlying foundations as well as to vehicles using them; has forced people like me off the railways because I cannot plan any journeys for business or personal needs; seems intent on destroying investment in modern railways; and now undermines business confidence further by even talking about rescheduling the climate crisis (does Sunak know something scientists do not?). Confidence has been undermined in every area; opportunities to invest and grow our economy and productivity lost for years.
They are destroying wealth all over the country and standing by as some of our most valuable industries decline and business is moved to other countries.
Tory internal strife has effects way beyond parliament.
Michael Mann
Shrewsbury
No democracy please, we’re British
The latest revelations about awful government, regarding the treatment of desperate asylum seekers and the abandonment of net zero targets, beggars belief.
Nobody wants this government to continue for another day let alone another year, yet we are completely powerless to get them out. It is a very strange democracy that allows this utter madness to persist. The Conservative Party should be utterly disgusted and ashamed of how low they would stoop to cling to power in the face of a clear overwhelming rejection by the electorate.
Every day they refuse to acknowledge this will only fuel the bitterness, and the disdain towards them and add to the extent of their extinction at the next election.
Paul Morrison
Glasgow
Truss-t in me
She’s at it again. Liz Truss is claiming the allowance set aside for previous prime ministers is to allow them funding for public speaking! As if she has anything worth saying.
Not only has she very little ability, but she obviously has no shame.
Unless of course she is talking about how to ruin a country. She was a useless MP, a waste of time as a minister, and a disaster of a prime minister.
One has to wonder what she sees when she looks in a mirror. Obviously not what the rest of us see. As someone who held a senior post in local government, I would be hanging my head in shame if I had a legacy like hers. She, however, has no shame. Neither does she appear to have any principles!
L Robertson
Orkney
The things we leave unsaid
Thank you Bibi Lynch, you summed it up so well.
I am now at the stage in life where I have to nod appreciatively at other people’s grandchildren stories. I don’t begrudge it, but it is sometimes difficult.
People who you meet for the first time assume that you have children/grandchildren. I still find it hard to explain why. I just say, it didn’t happen for me.
This saves them from the trauma of hearing about me losing four babies in the second trimester.
Nicola Timlick
Address supplied
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