LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Johnson ‘rearranging deckchairs on Titanic’

Sir, – Boris Johnson has announced £5 billion worth of capital spending projects.

However, like everything Johnson says, it’s a con. None of this is new money.

It is simply rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

When asked how any of this recycled money would create any new jobs, Johnson did not answer because he can’t.

The reason he can’t answer is because it won’t create any new jobs.

Since the time of

Thatcher the Tories have argued that profit is the reward for risk.

They say inequality is the failure of individuals not to take full advantage of opportunities.

They ignore the inexorable logic of the system.

They say capitalism is the only possible way of organising society.

However this system has been undermined since 2008 with continuous bailouts for the financial sector.

All this while living standards and wages have collapsed.

Now Boris Johnson has had to borrow the language of Keynesianism.

He says that austerity won’t be coming back

This is true because it never went away.

Some senior Tories are now worried about the defenestration of Mark Sedwill from his job as Cabinet Secretary.

They say this power grab by Dominic Cummings could do real long-term damage to Tory prospects

Cummings’ further empowerment will become a lightning rod for mass protest.

There will be anger at the Tories’ handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and when the true extent of the economic damage becomes clear.

The Tories have an agenda to get everyone back to work.

A second wave of Covid-19 is inevitable.

Cummings’ arrogance and Johnson’s incompetence is undermining attempts by government to deal with the consequences. Alan Hinnrichs. 2 Gillespie Terrace, Dundee.

Picture: Geoffrey Swaine/ Shutterstock. The Macmillan Cancer Support big yellow duck is raising money for the charity along the banks of the River Thames. The duck, in keeping with the times, was wearing a face mask in Henley-on-Thames yesterday.