Justine Greening’s plea for a change of course is a cry in the wilderness (The ‘let Rishi be Rishi’ plan is a disaster. Only a John Major strategy can halt Tory armageddon now, 23 October). The Tory party that elected John Major in 1990 contained people who were shown the door by Boris Johnson in 2019, while he ushered in the sort of people once described by David Cameron as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”. I wouldn’t endorse Cameron’s language, but it explains the party’s direction of travel, and the shrillness of the dog whistles by cabinet members.
Les Bright
Exeter
• How fascinating to learn from Justine Greening that we are living in an age when “authenticity counts for everything”. The age of Boris Johnson and his Brexit campaign? George Burns came nearer the truth when he said, of honesty, that “if you can fake that, you’ve got it made”.
Rev Christopher Swift
Coreglia Antelminelli, Italy
• Justine Greening opines that the recent byelection results “show an electorate that doesn’t know what the [Conservative] party and its leader now represent”. Au contraire: it shows an electorate that knows it precisely, and does not want any more of it. Ever again.
Douglas B Kell
Chirk, Wrexham
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