Justine Greening eloquently dismisses the backwardness and “self-serving madness” of the prime minister’s tormentors on the right of his party (Tories must face hard truths: Reform-lite wreckers like Braverman are why the public just don’t like us, 7 May). Instead she wants a return to a “moderate, tolerant and inclusive” Conservatism as if this were a recent condition of government. On election in 2010, David Cameron and George Osborne began at once to shred the UK’s social fabric and undermine the nation’s reputation abroad.
By early 2013, the UK’s AAA credit rating had fallen for the first time ever, and it dropped several points further within the next few years. All indices of public confidence were reduced, largely through cuts across the board, including to the so-called “protected” NHS. It was the Tory-led coalition government that set the dismal scene for the Brexit-Johnson debacle that followed.
Dr Sebastian Kraemer
London
• Justine Greening is only partly right in her explanation of why voters are abandoning the Conservative party. It is also because over the last 14 years of Tory government our public services have been underfunded and have significantly worsened.
Suella Braverman’s banging on about her woke agenda is an attempt to distract voters from the real issues: rising costs of living, a housing crisis, record NHS waiting lists, the lack of a plan for social care, teacher shortages, a declining postal service etc, in addition to the scandals and a string of incompetent ministers.
John Boaler
Calne, Wiltshire
• I can only applaud and endorse what Justine Greening is saying. Suella Braverman’s angry, nonsensical tirade does her and those who think like her no favours at all. Greening’s article gets right to the heart of the cause of the Conservative party’s woes. Braverman is the last person you would employ to fix it.
Sue Pryce-Jones
Ewelme, Oxfordshire
