Theresa May was in the wrong place at the wrong time

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

‘Had she been prime minister during the Covid pandemic, I have no doubt she would have been a calm, sensible and efficient leader’ (Yui Mok/PA Wire)

Theresa May was unfortunate in the timing of her premiership. She was unable to persuade her fractured party to accept the soft Brexit she negotiated.

However, had she been prime minister during the Covid pandemic, I have no doubt she would have been a calm, sensible and efficient leader – and there certainly would have been no wild parties in Downing Street.

Jo Haythornthwaite

Address supplied

Labour and the Tories: two sides of the same coin?

As Andrew Grice suggests, neither Labour nor the Conservatives will say what they would try to do in government (let alone what they actually believe ought to be done), for fear of allowing the other to somehow score points and gain a political advantage.

We shouldn’t be surprised – they have colluded for a century in persisting with our undemocratic voting system. Unless that is changed, nothing will get better. And the only way to change things is for neither to have an overall majority.

A plague on both their houses!

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

Where is our tax money going?

I associate high taxes with excellent public services. How is it that we have a tax rate the highest since 1946 (when we had just fought a very expensive war and were managing to introduce the welfare state) and yet there is no money for our disintegrating public infrastructure?

Can someone explain just where the money is going? Perhaps James Moore can write an article to enlighten us. I for one would be grateful, for I am truly at a loss to understand.

Joanna Pallister

Durham City

Leave Kate Middleton alone

Olivia Petter’s recent column about the whereabouts of Kate Middleton was bang on the money – not only is it none of our business where the Princess of Wales is, what she may or may not be recovering from, or why the palace is so reluctant to share details with the public (today’s photo notwithstanding), but the gossip surrounding her smacks of sexism.

The specific jokes and rumours I have heard about Kate these past few weeks would never be made about a man in a million years. Yes, the situation is unusual but does that really give us license to be so crude about a woman who is, by all accounts, a graceful and steadfast member of the royal family? Not to mention the fact that signs point to her disappearance coinciding with a medical issue, which further compounds the distasteful comments.

Stephen Bloom

Canterbury