While listening to our newly “elected” prime minister’s many vainglorious promises in her victory speech (5 September), I was struck by her utter lack of political awareness or even common decency to think it appropriate to thank her predecessor. It was as if he had graciously stepped down after selfless service to the nation rather than being removed by his parliamentary colleagues for his dishonesty and continual obfuscation.
If this is a measure of her political acumen, we must all expect the disgraceful events that have become the norm in our politics to continue unabated.
Russell Hunter
Eastbourne, East Sussex
• Pundits will of course mull over Liz Truss’s first words as prime minister outside Downing Street. But lest we forget: Boris Johnson in July 2019 promised to “restore trust in democracy”; Theresa May in July 2016 would fight “burning injustices”; David Cameron in May 2010 would look after “the elderly, the frail, the poorest”; and Margaret Thatcher in May 1979 would bring harmony “where there is discord”.
None of that happened. Johnson’s antics have endangered democracy. Under May, injustices grew further; under Cameron, lives became worse for the disadvantaged; and Thatcher is still remembered for the deep discord she caused. Much else that was announced did not materialise.
Given this track record, it would be astonishing if Truss’s words turned out to tell us much about what she will eventually achieve – at least with regard to anything that would be desirable.
Peter Cave
London
• William Davies rightly says that the impact of Thatcherite dogma in the early 1980s destroyed whole industrial regions (Trussonomics will be a reckless exercise in slashing the state when there’s nothing left to cut, 5 September). But in looking at the collective, we must not forget the impact on individuals who were on the receiving end of Margaret Thatcher’s dogmatic approach to everything.
I grew up in the north-west during the Thatcher years and worked in a Yorkshire bank, so saw first-hand the damage done. She wreaked havoc on industrial heartlands with no thought as to what would replace those jobs. The effects of her ill-thought-through actions can be seen today, as the UK struggles with high inflation and an overreliance on the service industry.
Thatcher’s ideological belief that the free market would solve everything has left us with an emaciated public sector. But anyone who lived through those years will surely agree that one of the most abhorrent aspects of that period was that she made you feel “less than” if you didn’t have money. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Su Hardman
Woodbridge, Suffolk
• How much longer will we continue to believe that we live in a democracy with an unelected upper house and a prime minister chosen by a handful of Conservative party members?
Jennifer Braithwaite
Faringdon, Oxfordshire
• So much for their financial probity, green credentials and common sense when Boris Johnson and Liz Truss fly to Scotland in separate planes on the same day to see the Queen.
Peter Miller
Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire
• A letter in this package was amended on 7 September 2022 because in saying “le même chose”, an earlier version mistakenly adopted the masculine, when chose is feminine.
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