New message boy for PM

Sir, – What a mean minded letter from Derek Farmer (Experience for the job lacking, Courier, February 19).

He apparently considers that no politician can hold a ministerial brief at the age of 29, obviously ignoring the fact that ministers make political decisions based on advice from qualified civil servants and other advisers and researchers.

New finance secretary Kate Forbes was employed as an accountant in between a

BA at Cambridge and an MSc at Edinburgh.

A determination to do what is right for the country can be much more valuable than engrained professional viewpoints.

Mr Farmer should perhaps be more concerned about the suitability of the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. Now that Sajid Javid has discovered his backbone and decided that he is not going to be reduced to the status of prime minister’s message boy it behoves us to look at his successor, Rishi Sunak.

On the web page of The Spectator on February 17, political journalist Robert Peston reminded us that Sunak worked for two hedge fund managers who made the biggest profits out of the rise and subsequent fall of the pound. Financial expertise, but certainly not in the national interest.

A measure of how compliant to Johnson he will be was shown at the televised first meeting of the new-look Cabinet.

In an embarassing teacher-pupil session, all the members chorused the answers to the prime minister’s questions.

Seated at Johnson’s left shoulder and beaming broadly, Sunak and the rest shout out 40 when asked “how many hospitals are we going to build?”.

Official figures confirm that the government has put in place funding for building projects at six hospitals between now and 2025. Ken Guild. 76 Brown Street, Broughty Ferry.