Can Tories rally or are they toast?
I HATE to break it to Andrew Neil (Mail) but the public are savvy enough to know an embattled Government is on the political skids when it becomes all Christmassy in March and prepares to hand out tax cuts with overindulgent zeal. What about our beleaguered public services? Will their much-needed funds be siphoned off? And in this febrile and dangerous world, will the defence budget also be collateral damage? It is time to face facts. The good ship Tory has finally sailed, so let Labour steer us into less choppy fiscal waters.
Judith a. daniels, great Yarmouth, norfolk.
AS TAX codes start falling through letterboxes and many more people, including pensioners, are dragged into paying income tax, the Chancellor must raise personal allowances in his Budget. If he doesn’t, the Tories are dead in the water.
DOUGLAS SWINTON, Redcar, n. Yorks.
ONLY one thing, apart from bringing Boris Johnson back, might give the Tory party a chance at the next election, and that is actually getting control of illegal immigration. For that to happen, we would need three changes to the law: 1. UK courts to have precedence over the ECHR in all immigration matters. 2. No migrant entering the country can apply for asylum. Any application must be made in their country of origin, the first safe country they enter, or the country to which they are deported. 3. Any migrant entering the country illegally has no right of appeal against deportation and no access to publicly funded legal representation.
ROBERT BRYAN, Morpeth, Northumberland.
IS THERE any thawing of Reform UK’s attitude to the idea of a Tory/Tice tie-up? Nobody wants to see true Conservatives disembowelling one another at the next general election. Surely a deal is possible, with the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg given clear runs in their home constituencies in exchange for removing opposition to Reform UK candidates in Brexit strongholds where the sitting Tories are retiring on ballot day.
T. J. HICKMAN, Southampton.
COME on, Richard Tice. If your party couldn’t win the Wellingborough by-election with Ben habib, a very charismatic candidate, then you will be responsible for Labour forming the next Government. As much as you want to destroy the Conservative Party, I’m sure you don’t want to let in Sir Keir Starmer — so please do us all a favour and reach some sort of accommodation with the Tories, as Nigel Farage did to secure the Brexit vote.
GEORGE HATCHMAN, Cheshunt, Herts.