We shouldn’t be surprised by the Tories’ Sue Gray tantrum

Many Johnson-supporting Tories seem to be incensed by the possibility of Sue Gray becoming chief of staff (news, yesterday) in a future Keir Starmer premiership. They claim it totally invalidates her enquiry into Partygate, which to them was a manufactured scandal intended to bring down a Brexit-backing PM all orchestrated by the Labour Party.

We shouldn’t be surprised by this reaction. This, after all, is the party that couldn’t believe the level of acquiescence shown by the vast majority of the public to lockdown restrictions. The party that considered it quite acceptable to award highly lucrative contracts for PPE and Covid testing to their friends and supporters. The party that thought nothing of holding alcohol-fuelled karaoke parties in 10 Downing Street. The party that condoned the egregious behaviour of Owen Paterson and deliberately misled the late Queen over the proroguing of parliament.

When notions of honesty, integrity and decency barely trouble you, it must be hard to appreciate that individuals such as Sue Gray can hold firm beliefs and still display impartiality, openmindedness and honour. It’s what happens when you debase the political currency for over half a decade and then judge everybody by your own miserable standards.

Malcolm Harris Grimsby

A slim majority is all we need...

While I am inclined to agree with Mr Daintith‘s assessment of the UK’s current relationship with the EU in his recent letter to The Independent, I take issue with his view that the nation would need to be “wholeheartedly” in favour of rejoining the EU when, as we know, it required only the narrowest of majorities to leave it.

Jerry Wells Alresford, Hampshire

Neither party is looking out for us

In The Independent’s letter from Jeanette Schael, we see yet again another person putting two and two together and making three with their analysis of who or what is to blame for the present situation with the NHS (Hancock reaches a new low, yesterday). Firstly, what has Rishi Sunak’s or any other MP’s use of private medical care got to do with it?

I am a retired nurse with 41 years of service and I choose to spend my money on private medical insurance for my convenience and comfort. Having once been told I had to wait at least 6 weeks for a bed to undergo treatment within the NHS, I was extremely relieved that I was able to get this sorted out immediately via a private hospital. It saved my life and saved a huge cost for the NHS.

Successive governments, both Conservative and Labour, have each term in office made totally unnecessary changes to the structure and running of the NHS. None as far as I or many of my colleagues could see, did any good and most of us thought created more harm. I agree that junior doctors and nurses as a whole need to be better paid. I also believe that would-be nurses should not have to pay for their training or student tuition fees.

However, the biggest issue that needs to be dealt with is the provision of social care services to free up blocked hospital beds. The management of funding by local authorities has resulted in many care facilities closing and placed enormous pressure on staff and resources. The lack of common sense in many of our

politicians today is staggering. I for one despair that their decisions are made purely off the cuff to try to stay in power and not for the good of all the citizens of this country.

Cynthia Younis Bucks

Road safety

I’m in complete agreement with John Rentoul’s article, where he points out that Auriol Grey should not be held responsible for the death of Celia Ward – following her swearing and waving at a cyclist (Voices, yesterday). What if a dog had growled at the cyclist, or if a child had screamed? They would certainly not have been locked up. While the death of Ward is a great tragedy, it was an accident and you can’t hold Grey responsible for that.

Tom Foxe Norwich

Politicians are part of the problem

Despite all evidence to the contrary, the deputy chair of the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson, believes asylum-seekers are “economic migrants cheating the system”. He has used parliamentary privilege to read out addresses of hotels accommodating asylum seekers boasting he would not be “silenced” even when warned this would incite violence against them.

Anderson has recently declared he has “sympathy” with the racist mobs that have attacked hotels accommodating asylumseekers, such as those who rioted in Knowsley in February. Anderson has gone on to argue that the racist mobs that attack the hotels are “normal people”. Politicians like Anderson and their sympathy for these people are only making the problem worse.

Sasha Simic London

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