The Tory leadership race has become a competition to find the ‘least bad’ candidate

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Tom Tugendhat is leading the race to become Rishi Sunak’s replacement (PA Archive)

There seems to be a lot of fuss around who the next leader of the Conservative Party will be. But does anybody really care? It’s like speculating about who’s going to be the next leader of the laserdisc appreciation society. It’s outdated, irrelevant, and most people don’t spend much of their time thinking about it. For the next few years at least, it may as well not exist at all.

Apparently the frontrunner at the moment is Tom Tugendhat, who isn’t the most popular candidate so much as he is the least objectionable. When the best your party can do is “not totally reviled”, rather than finding somebody who genuinely inspires the public, then perhaps it’s time to go away and take a long hard look in the mirror.

Stephen Bloom

Canterbury

What are Labour waiting for?

It is all very well demonising the seven Labour rebels who voted with their conscience and, heaven forfend, perhaps even in line with the wishes of the constituents they represent.

But how many more of the millions of deprived children, some without even a bed to sleep in, are at serious risk of hunger and health complications while Labour vacillate about their public image?

We all know they will eventually bow to the inevitable and scrap the two-child cap – or perhaps they will simply circumvent it with some policy or other, as some feeble attempt to save face – so why not just get it over with now?

Rob B Saltmarsh

Address supplied

Let’s hope Kamala has what it takes

It is somewhat heartening to see Donald Trump, the one-time master of the insulting nickname, struggle to come up with valid (or even imagined yet convincing) criticisms of Kamala Harris. It seems clear to me at this point that the former president was banking on his successor Joe Biden to stay in the race, perhaps in some misjudged act of vanity.

Luckily for us, that ended up not being the case, and now we have a smart, capable, much younger woman in his place to give Trump a run for his money. Unlike the former reality TV host, VP Harris actually has skills and experience relevant to the post – an astonishing point of comparison, when you consider that Trump has literally already been president!

Here’s hoping her candidacy represents a sea change from what has felt like a march towards an inevitable Trump victory in November. It isn’t just Americans banking on it – we here in the UK would benefit greatly from some sanity across the pond.

Molly Howe

Liverpool

The Olympic opening ceremony wasn’t bad – it was a triumph

I’m not sure why everybody seems to be under the impression that Friday’s Olympics opening ceremony was some kind of huge disaster. If anything, it was worth it for the Celine Dion comeback alone, which I’m not ashamed to say brought a tear to my eye.

But even apart from that, the entire event was a charmingly bizarre, kitsch display of European culture, and an uplifting start to what promises to be an interesting contest. Sure, it was a bit more Eurovision than we’re used to, but what’s wrong with that? It was a triumph of camp – not everything needs to be so serious all the time!

Gary Ross

Manchester