Jeremy Hunt can’t undo the damage already done to Britain
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Version 0 of 1. The country needs a brutally honest reckoning, not just a minor economic adjustment, says Colin Montgomery. Plus letters from Rev Julian Blakemore, Peter Leney, Nick Bennett-Britton and Sam Doncaster Jeremy Hunt insists that the prime minister is still the one in charge; that the end destination of her agenda is the right one, and that this whole volte-face is simply a matter of changing how we get there. His euphemism is no doubt intended as an emollient to his troubled party as much as the markets, but it’s an insult to anyone with a functioning brain cell. It’s like saying the end goal was to not get eaten by lions, and then persisting with a prime minister dressed like a gazelle. Such colossal and ruinous misjudgment should have been enough to remove multiple prime ministers many times over, let alone one clinging to power. The UK needs to go much further than some macroeconomic readjustment. A brutally honest reckoning is what’s needed now – from the suitability for office of Liz Truss, to an acknowledgement of the economic damage of the Tories’ Brexit folly and the attendant truths about Britain’s place in the world. The time for fairytales and political game-playing to preserve one party’s hegemony is over – because no end destination is worth the damage this grotesque experiment has caused and continues to cause for so many people across the UK. Colin MontgomeryEdinburgh It is dismaying to see Jeremy Hunt being brought back to steady the ship (Report, 14 October). His immediate predecessor was ousted for imposing a reckless tax-cutting mini-budget for which he and the prime minister had no mandate. Now Hunt thinks that he can make good by performing a volte-face that is equally reckless – raising taxes and cutting services in the midst of a cost of living crisis. There is no mandate for this return to austerity either. The Tories’ desperation to cling on to power despite serial and catastrophic failures is palpable. After subjecting us to a summer of agony while they made their choice of a new leader, they have already fallen out of love with her. Now they seem to think that they can just sweep their mistake under the carpet by switching her out like a dud battery. This is not how things are supposed to be done in a democracy. The electorate should have its say. The Tories have taken a wrecking ball to the economy, our constitution and the country as a whole. We need them gone. Let the people speak.Rev Julian BlakemoreStevenage, Hertfordshire Perhaps Liz Truss could refer the government to BBC One’s The Repair Shop. Jay Blades and his team have managed to magically restore 100% of the items taken to them to be given a new lease of life. I don’t think a rotting wooden Truss or a cabinet with splits and cracks would present an insurmountable challenge.Peter LeneyMazières-Naresse, France Liz Truss must surely now be thinking of Oscar Wilde’s reported last words: “This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do.”Nick Bennett-BrittonWinchester In Peter Walker’s analysis (Kwasi Kwarteng was logical choice as chancellor but hubris was his downfall, 14 October), I came across the inevitable bit of the rundown of Kwasi Kwarteng’s CV: “After a spell in the City ...” These six words are so commonplace for so many Tory MPs that it would be interesting to know how many use the same route to becoming an MP and where their true interests lie – the country or their bank balances?Sam DoncasterHolsworthy, Devon Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication. |