Direct your outrage at EU

I fear that Richard Gibson, who is outraged in the Letters column [December 23] has been outraged since the majority voted to quit the EU (we did not quit Europe,

only the unelected government of the EU). I don’t think Richard can reasonably be outraged by the government’s overall handling of the pandemic, mistakes were made but no worse than those made by others, all of which were struggling with an unknown entity.

Such mistakes as discharging Covid bearing people to care homes are not the direct fault of the government, they are the fault of a woefully mismanaged NHS and care sector. I can recall seeing care homes reported on TV who just refused to accept untested discharges from hospital. I can recall also seeing a care home with a well-stocked PPE cupboard, so the whole thing was patchy in the response of individuals.

At the end of the day by being outside the EU we managed to vaccinate quicker and I see from the latest statistics that the mortality rate in the UK is about half that of the EU overall so lets have credit where it is due.

The fact that some staff working in government may or may not have had drinks and nibbles at their desks or done a Zoom quiz hardly seems to warrant the expressions of public outrage from people like Richard - I’ve yet to see any mention of anything that actually looked or sounded like a “party”.

Overall the government has done well, it’s kept most of us alive and should be given credit for that and for getting us out of the EU before they screwed up big time on vaccine purchase, not pilloried for one or two areas where they were let down by others.

As to Brexit, just what did Richard want? A majority voted to leave and we couldn’t be half-in half-out. Or did he want us to “leave” but keep being bound by every new EU law and directive that came along, trusting the EU not to do anything to our detriment? Well we’ve already seen that the EU will take every opportunity to make our life difficult and undermine our businesses. Now that is a real reason for outrage, not our Covid success.

Bob Britnell

Orchard Close, Canterbury