Most people in Britain know who’s really to blame for the strikes

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

Tory spending cuts over 12 years have made the NHS a place where staff are unable to care properly for their patients (Getty)

The health secretary, Steve Barclay, is condemning striking healthcare workers for putting the public at risk. He might like to consider the impact of a hard Brexit which decimated an already denuded workforce, and the rejection of the EU’s offer to delay the implementation of this when a global pandemic came along, enabling a failing government to blame Covid for any and every negative associated with Brexit.

Then there are the government partygoers who regularly clapped the healthcare professionals who were dying as they attempted to cope with Covid, using ineffective PPE which raked in millions for Tory pals. “Let the bodies pile high!” is a statement not attributed to nurses or paramedics, but to the Tory prime minister of the time.

And the government’s utter financial incompetence, bordering on madness, hugely exacerbated the cost of living crisis, which is part of the reason for the strikes. The other is that Tory spending cuts over 12 years have made the NHS a place where staff are unable to care properly for their patients.

Most people in this country know who to blame, Mr Barclay.

Katharine Powell

Cheshire

Like John Rentoul, I couldn’t understand why the Conservative Party voted someone as obviously unsuitable as Liz Truss for PM, but an anecdote from a friend was enlightening.

Shortly after Truss was elected, my friend was at a dinner party and in conversation with the gentleman next to her discovered he was a Conservative Party member.

Curious, she asked him who he had voted for and the reply rather startlingly was Liz of course, the other chap shouldn’t even be in the country. I rather hope that subsequent events have sent him off in apoplexy.

Sarah Macrae

Hampshire

Eagerly awaiting

Remaining on the subject of Jeremy Clarkson, I find I am zealously awaiting his inimitable musings on the forthcoming TV extravaganza Prince Andrew: The Musical.

It is surely anathema to him not to have an opinion or will the ex-Top Gear presenter decide that two furores are one too many? I wonder.

Robert Boston

Kingshill, Kent

Verification is the real issue

Elon Musk’s short tenure at Twitter has made clear the platform’s immediate critical issue isn’t finding someone “foolish enough” to lead Twitter, but instead lies in implementing a secure system to verify its users. An issue that has long plagued the site.

Elon Musk has tried, and failed, to implement verification methods that would deter fake accounts and bots – the pressing issue Musk wanted to fight when he took on his latest project. Thinking the answer lay in an option to pay for blue check marks clearly underestimated the power of social engineering, and was extremely short-sighted. Indeed, it didn’t stop “trolls” paying $8 to get verified and pretending to be governments, politicians, celebrities and brands.

The reality is verification and authentication are two of the most important things companies operating in Web3 need to get right, especially as we continue to move in a digital-first world. Ultimately, it is through implementing the right verification and authentication systems that a lot of current internet woes, such as online bullying, underage use of certain platforms, and limiting fraud, will be addressed.

The internet remains a very young technology, and we will get to a point where verifying and authenticating systems will become second nature to internet users. We must ensure that platforms take this level of safety for its users, and themselves, seriously. Including the next CEO of Twitter.

Dan McLoughlin, field CTO at OneSpan

Christianity in Ethiopia

In this article by Ije Teunissen-Oligboh I’ve always hated reading things like, Africans are only Christian because of the “white man”. Ethiopia has been Christian since the beginning of Christianity (as has Egypt).

I do get offended whenever I read ignorance about Christianity in Ethiopia, and it is enormously disrespectful towards an incredibly rich and ancient culture.

Eugene Daniel

Birmingham