Bringing Boris Johnson back to Earth about Brexit

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/22/bringing-boris-johnson-back-to-earth-about-brexit

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Boris Johnson compares the sorting out of the Irish border issue under a no-deal Brexit with the Apollo moon landing (Report, theguardian.com, 22 July). Well, the moon landing took nearly 10 years to plan, was built on previous achievements and technologies, required about 400,000 people working together for one clear aim and cost America billions of dollars in the 1960s. People sadly died in the early trials (the Apollo 1 fire), and it was not designed to deliver a sustainable base, but only to enable the moon to be visited a few times. It inspired a generation, not least through the iconic vision of one blue Earth against a sea of stars.

Brexit, by contrast, only really got going when article 50 was invoked, does not have the same concerted will supporting it; rather, it divides the nation. It will cost the UK billions, will doubtless shorten many more people’s lives through creating more poverty and extending and deepening austerity, and it is a complete change to the state of the nation. Perhaps a more useful comparison than he realises?Graham HeadLondon

• Boris Johnson has written “if they could use hand-knitted computer code to make a frictionless re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere in 1969, we can solve the problem of frictionless trade at the Northern Irish border”.

Friction was the key to the safe re-entry of the Apollo astronauts. Air friction slowed the returning capsule from the speed of a stone dropped from 240,000 miles to one that allowed parachutes to open. The heat generated by friction turned the air bordering the capsule to a plasma, cutting all communication between the astronauts and the world for a critical six minutes. Boris Johnson has redefined “frictionless” so that it includes total isolation. What else has he redefined?Bill TruscottBuckingham, Buckinghamshire

• I might trust Boris Johnson’s belief in a technological solution to the Irish backstop if I could ever imagine him wiring up an electric plug safely.David SpilsburyBirmingham

• Our next prime minister will be a TV personality with no political agenda other than that borrowed from the European Research Group. If Matthew d’Ancona is correct (I was part of the brotherhood that enabled Johnson’s rise, Journal, 22 July), the House of Commons will no longer be the training ground for our future leaders, but it will be the media.

Does not the success of that other media star Nigel Farage demonstrate this truth? This suggests we are doomed to a succession of dilettante leaders who owe their success to their celebrity than their grasp of policy issues. What the UK now requires is reform of the political system that minimises the role of the television studio and the media in the political process, otherwise the successor to Boris will not be a serious politician but yet another media star.Derrick JoadLeeds

• Re Matthew d’Ancona’s article, it’s surely time to look at what Oxbridge, especially Oxford, is teaching its students. On the evidence of the last few Tory governments it certainly doesn’t involve rational thinking. Rather, it is based not on competence or intellectual ability but on a very narrow world view, an unjustified sense of entitlement and wildly out of date memories of empire, the attempts to deal with which show only too clearly how despicable “British values” actually are. It is not good for any country to have two universities to which such unthinking deference is given.Dee ThomasSt Albans, Hertfordshire

• Perhaps the kindest response to Matthew d’Ancona’s mea culpa is to observe that some politicians, given the chance, have the diabolical gift of being able to corrupt anyone and anything. In 2006 Matthew was dealing with a classic chancer.Geoff ReidBradford

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