Self-serving politicians

WHAT’S the difference between a promise and a choice? A pretty significant one, I’d say.

And yet Professor Thom Brooks (The Journal, May 16) can’t seem to fathom it.

The campaign for Brexit was opposed by the Government of the day.

Brexit supporters were in no position to offer promises, just different opportunities.

The £350m per week for the NHS on the bus might have fooled him and his ilk, but for the rest of us it was nothing more than an aspiration, a choice, an opportunity for new thinking – something any socialist worth his or her salt would celebrate.

To use this issue as a departure point for a diatribe bemoaning the state of trust in UK politics seems more than a little contrived.

He presents plenty of evidence, but it’s pretty low-key. And yet right through his piece the unequivocal message rings out “we’ve never had it so bad”.

Has he lost his memory? Where is his sense of history? From Blair’s phantom weapons of mass destruction to Thatcher’s contortions over the direction of travel of the ‘General Belgrano’, politicians’ selfserving stories cost lives.

And none of Boris’s free-for-all culture at No 10 can compare with the widespread expenses corruption uncovered during John Major’s time.

Thatcher’s mine closures, antiunion legislation and three million unemployed was not an ideological choice? Of course it was!

Blair’s commitment to reverse Thatcher’s reforms was sincere? Not a chance! Major’s moral crusade was matched by consistently ethical personal conduct? You must be joking – ask Edwina Currie!

“A crisis of trust in UK politics” with Starmer on a mission to restore ethical behaviour in public life. A man who lied about his plan to nationalise the energy sector in order to become Labour leader. I just don’t see it.

If there was a golden age when politics was all sweetness and light, I must have missed it.

The truth is, Boris is the best we have at the moment and, all things considered, we could do worse!

JOHN HODGKINS, Seaton Sluice