We won’t be told anything

EVERYTHING had gone swimmingly for Boris Johnson until the early part of the year.

His success at persuading large numbers of Labour voters to change sides, following his promise of a golden future if we took back control and severed our links with the EU.

Backed by a stunning majority our new PM was fireproof, or so he thought – until Covid-19 struck.

It took him a little while to realise that something was seriously amiss and that drastic measures would have to be taken to deal with it.

In the meantime the virus gained pace and he was too late to take advantage of the experiences of the countries of continental Europe which would have reduced Britain’s death toll. And why was this? It was because we’re British.

Mr Johnson had spent so long pointing out the disadvantages, as he saw them, of belonging to the EU and the advantages of “going it alone” that he quite failed to notice that since the days of the Blitz we had dismantled great swathes of our manufacturing industry, recklessly sold off many famous firms and industries to foreign investors and put our faith into our burgeoning financial sector, quite overlooking the fact that this is the industry most easily re-located to other parts of the world.

Now as we enter the worst recession for generations, stricken by the pandemic, with a massive and ever-increasing gap between the incomes of the rich and the poor we face an uncertain future, and why? It’s because we’re British – we couldn’t possibly learn from foreigners. At a time when we need friends and allies more than ever before, with climate change going to affect our everyday lives, we stand alone, and why? Because we’re British, and we know best.

Rod Slater, Lymm