Even schoolchildren can see what Tory MPs cannot

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

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi (PA)

There are many lessons to be learnt from the interventions of education secretary Nadhim Zahawi and MP Brendan Clarke-Smith into the democracy lesson at Welbeck Primary School this week.

It seems that 11-year-olds are capable of seeing clearly that which a dwindling number of Conservative politicians apparently cannot. Breaking laws and lying to parliament should not be considered a party political issue.

Mr Zahawi, like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and other anti-democrats, want to stop young people from forming their own opinions, especially if those opinions run counter to the government’s self-congratulatory narrative. However, primary schools are fair game for the prime minister when he wants a political photo opportunity. So we have another example of “one rule for them and another for us”.

The school has subsequently been targeted for abuse by Conservative supporters. That this passes without comment from either Mr Clarke-Smith or Mr Zahawi speaks volumes as to their true motivation and lack of moral compass.

Nick Donnelly

Dorset

Nadhim Zahawi and Brendan Clarke-Smith have shown the true colours of the Tory party with their verbal attack on schoolchildren from Nottingham, who criticised the prime minister in letters written to their local MP.

It just goes to show the absurd depths to which the Tory party will descend when it has to pick on Year Six children (11 years old) in order to protect Boris Johnson.

As I understand, it was part of the children’s coursework to send letters to their MP. Sounds to me like a positive and instructive way of teaching English, letter construction and promoting the power of thinking. It just goes to show how the “party” antics, lies and moral vacuum that the Tory party displays have been noticed by people of all ages.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

I’m delighted to read of Nadhim Zahawi’s determination to ensure dialogue and free debate are swiftly excised from our schools. As a next step, I would suggest that at the start of the school day all pupils face their interactive whiteboards and salute an image of Big Boris (with that of the secretary of state for education as an insert in the bottom right-hand corner).

Hugh Protherough

Hook Norton, Oxfordshire

Comes up smelling of... fish

An early hands-on task for the new Brexit opportunities minister (an oxymoron if ever I heard one) might be for Jacob Rees-Mogg to drive an HGV loaded with chilled shellfish down from Aberdeen to the port of Dover and on to Calais to be unloaded in one of Paris’s many restaurants. Then return the same route, loaded with some fresh French cheese for the tables of Londons’ equally plentiful restaurants.

The experience may help inform Mr Rees-Mogg and parliament of Brexit’s success to date, though I rather suspect how he and his goods smelt after the journeys would be a better indicator.

Paul Dolan

Cheshire

Clinging on at any cost

By lifting Covid restrictions early, Boris Johnson once again puts the rest of the population at risk in an attempt to placate his right-wing backbenchers in the forlorn hope of saving his own job. Is there no limit to how far he will plumb the depths in an attempt to save his own skin?

David Felton

Wistaston, Cheshire

Major flaws

So, dear old John Major has tried to give us all a lecture on Brexit and discipline? Is this the same Brexit he has completely opposed and tried to overturn?

For John Major to talk discipline makes me laugh. Major is the man who tried to run a government that was supposed to be whiter than white yet was exposed for cash for favours; the one who wanted to go back to basics while having an affair with Edwina Currie; and the one who talked tough in Maastricht yet caved in to Brussels.

Yes, that John Major.

Geoffrey Brooking

Havant, Hampshire

Don’t fall for love

Romance scams are becoming increasingly commonplace, with fraudsters targeting vulnerable people online, stealing hearts and emptying wallets. Across the banking industry in the UK, romance fraud nearly doubled during the pandemic with losses increasing 91 per cent and the average amount lost per victim has grown to £8,655. At the heart of this type of fraud is people creating unverified, fake social media accounts or stealing real people’s identities before swindling money from unsuspecting victims.

The UK government and law enforcement can’t tackle this alone. We need banks, which often foot the bill through fraud refunds to customers, to play their part in supporting a trusted digital identity system that lets people prove who they are. Using data held by the banks, which have verified the identity of 98 per cent of the UK population, a digital identity system will enable people to prove they are who they say they are and verify the identity of the person on the other end of the transaction. This type of system has the power to dramatically reduce all types of fraud, protecting people from the financial and deep emotional pain caused by fraud.

Martin Wilson

CEO of Digital Identity Net