The resignation of BORIS Johnson and the ensuing ‘race’ to become his successor has seen much of the media drift away from the real issues troubling our society: food poverty, fuel poverty, working poverty, homelessness, addictions, mental health. seizures and high rates of suicide.
Gone from No. 10 (but not quite yet) is a prime minister who dodged numerous bullets before his own lieutenants caught him at point-blank range.
It was millionaire Boris Johnson who resisted calls from, among others, the Children’s Society, to give every child in a family in England on Universal Credit a free school lunch. This would have saved each family around £400 a year. This is the same Boris Johnson who just over a year ago the tabloids revealed a butler had ‘smuggled’ £27,000 worth of baskets full of organic food during lockdown.
Some might say we live in a meritocracy and “it’s breaking,” but not all of us live in a world where we get by on our demonstrable abilities.
I have taught hundreds of young people who are much smarter than me, who have worked very hard in school and followed all the rules, but who will never have the chance to realize their potential because of their environment. socioeconomic.
I have taught hundreds of young people whose families have had to choose between eating or heating or lining up at the food bank.
At least they could all be assured that our illustrious (soon to be former) chef was snatching up gourmet food from Lady Bamford’s elite organic farm shop. Yes, it was Lord Bamford’s wife who donated £10million to the Conservative Party coffers.
Politicians are so out of touch with other people’s realities. As of this writing, eight Conservative politicians are vying for the top job. Of these eight, five are Oxbridge-educated and each is a millionaire, some multiple times (including Rishi Sunak, who is thought to have a fortune of £200m and is married to an heiress who is expected to inherit billions but was caught up in his personal tax affairs).
The work is no better. Most of its leadership positions are filled by Oxford and Edinburgh alumni and its leader, who has an estimated personal net worth of over £7million, is The Right Honorable Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB, QC , PM. Sounds like a man of the people, huh?
All of these politicians are doomed not because the issues I mentioned earlier are beyond their sphere of influence, but because they are beyond their sphere of experience.
I don’t pretend to know the answers to these problems, but I can’t help feeling that a new generation is rotting away, while those who want to “lead” us continue to live in luxury.
Gordon Fisher, Stewartton.
WORK CAN RESTORE OUR VALUES
I AGREE with GR Weir’s endorsement (Letters, 13 July) of John Major’s condemnation of those in Boris Johnson’s cabinet who ‘have been silent when they should have spoken’.
I am convinced that only Labor and the Liberal Democrats recognize the need for the UK to make a fresh start. I understand that any attempt to rescue our democratic processes and our social cohesion from the disarray the Tories have plunged into will not be helped by Sir Keir Starmer’s unrealistic belief that he can ‘make Brexit work’.
This, however, is no more unrealistic than the SNP’s belief that ‘an independent Scotland can be achieved’. Eight years after the 2014 referendum, he has made no attempt to convince us that he can. I can only assume it’s because he can’t. Yet he still asks us to press the UK self-destruct button.
It is obvious that we must trust those for whom we have chosen to vote. There will always be an element of “Project Fear” over who we choose not to vote for.
In other words, I have more faith in Labor’s ability to restore UK values from their current disarray than in the ability of the SNP to create an independent, functioning Scotland.
John Milne, Uddington.
IT’S TIME TO RESPECT THE EDINBURGH CASE
NICOLA Sturgeon and her cronies tell us that democracy must prevail, which means they must do what they want to have another referendum. I seem to remember democracy in action in Scotland, in 2014, in the biggest democratic exercise we have ever seen. With an 85% turnout, Scots voted to stay in the UK and rejected the SNP’s very wobbly proposal to leave the UK.
According to the Edinburgh Agreement of October 2012, the vote was to “deliver a fair test and decisive expression of the views of the people of Scotland and an outcome which all will respect”. Nowhere was it stated that it would be about “unless…” – take your pick: Brexit, Tories, Boris Johnson. There were no covenants suggesting that the vote could or should be canceled for any reason, and certainly not simply because one party was offended at losing the vote. I realize that many nationalists think they should have won, due to the perceived righteousness of their cause. They believe Scottish voters should be given the opportunity to mend their ways and rectify the mistake they made in 2014 – as often as necessary.
It’s the argument of the spoiled little kid in the playground who shouts “it’s not fair”. Most of us didn’t want a referendum at all – Alex Salmond staged one based on getting 45% of the vote out of a 50% turnout in 2011 – but we went with it nonetheless , believing that this would settle the matter once and for all.
One thing is clear: the nationalist party that wants to break up our country cannot tell us how it would solve our multiple problems and has shown little respect as required by the Edinburgh agreement. It is time to tell them: enough is enough.
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.
• THERE seems to be an agreed policy across the Tory leadership candidate list – and I would include Sir Keir Starmer in that description – to answer all questions about Indyref2 with the answer that the 2014 referendum was a “once in a generation” event and that the current generation still has at least 10 years to go. None of the investigators explore where this much-cited attribute of the 2014 vote came from.
This was certainly not part of the question on the ballot and I can only trace it back to comments made by some SNP politicians at the time. Even at that, the only evidence I could find is that of Alex Salmond, discussing the matter on the Andrew Marr Show, expressing his opinion that we were unlikely to get another chance in “the current political generation “. I would say that the resignation of Mr. Salmond as FM very shortly afterwards could reasonably have marked the end of a political generation. In any event, Alex Salmond’s comments carry no more legal or legislative weight than those of any other individual and are certainly not binding on the Scottish nation. Scots aged under 16 in 2014 were too young to vote and will be at least 24 in 2023 and at least 33 in 10 years. How much longer will this generation have to wait before trade unionists accept that democracy gives them the right to have their say on the issue?
I call on all media interviewers in the coming weeks to challenge their subjects on the relevance of the “generational” excuse.
Willie Maclean, Milngavie.
• EILEEN McCartin (Letters, 13 July) says the result of the 2014 referendum was the firm will of the Scottish people. It may be true. But circumstances have since changed dramatically. On the one hand, the solemn promises of a new constitutional reform made at the time did not materialize.
In the 2016 referendum, the people of Scotland gave a resounding yes to stay in the EU – and by a bigger majority than the no voters in 2014. How did that happen? Has the stated will of the Scottish people during the referendum on the EU been respected?
Jim Morrow, Glasgow.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NHS PROMISE?
Are many people wondering why the NHS is not getting the £350million a week promised by the Tories? Do many people know that Boris Johnson, in his previous career as a journalist, wrote that Brexit was a really bad idea that would hurt the UK economy? Do many contemplate the promise of many trade deals just waiting to be signed that would transform our economy? Do many people know that the Russians interfered in our Brexit vote? Are we now poorer but happier in our new freedoms?
James Evans, Dumbarton.
Read more: Don’t be fooled by those who enabled Boris Johnson
