The Conservatives have lived up to their name this autumn Budget

All we ever get from politicians is seemingly positive sound bites, many of them untrue or at best disingenuous. Your correspondent Ashley Cowburn reminds us of an admission from Matt Hancock, the health and social care secretary, who stated that mental health treatment is still failing six years after the government promised dramatic change.

Now Phillip Hammond is offering an extra £2bn for mental health services which sounds good but will be spent over the next 6 or 7 years. Assuming of course there are no major changes to our economy in the interim, that’s 12-plus years since the problem was identified. No wonder they are called Conservative.

G Forward
Stirling

It appears that long gone are the heady days post-Brexit when the secretary of state for international trade, Dr Liam Fox, declared that an EU trade deal would be “one of the easiest in human history” and nations would be queueing up to strike deals with the UK.

Indeed, David Davis, formerly secretary of state for exiting the European Union, famously declared that a raft of new trade deals would be in place by March 2019.

In the last few days other countries, those same ones apparently so desperate to strike deals with a resurgent UK, blocked the UK’s bid to fast-track its entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the intergovernmental body that regulates international trade and comprises 164 countries.

The UK is a full member of the WTO but its terms of membership are tied up with the European Union, and it needs to have an independent membership document that sets out the terms of its trade after leaving the bloc in March 2019.

Instead of being able, as was proposed, to simply cut and paste the EU text into a new WTO agreement covering the UK, the UK will now face a longer path towards entering the WTO, resulting in a lengthy period of negotiations which could take years. It also means that other countries can now ask the UK to make concessions in order to join.

Like so many other promises by the Brexiteers, it appears that the pledge of a UK boldly striking trade deals across the world with nations desperately lining up to do so, is a total myth.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance has unleashed a sudden and headline-breaking fury in the past two weeks. Undoubtedly the questions should pour in.

But as an ordinary citizen, one wonders what makes the story of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi being allegedly killed by the Saudis seem more important than the murder of thousands of ordinary Yemenis?

Why are questions being raised now with much more rigour against the selling of arms to Saudi Arabia when Khashoggi’s disappearance certainly does not seem to be a result of any of those weapons being used against him? Yemenis on the other hand have died directly as a result of the weapons the Saudis have purchased from western countries. The grave mismatch between the uproar against one over the other is breathtaking. It feels as though one man’s possible horrific murder has dwarfed the massacre of thousands of innocent men, women and children.

Of course, the media and politicians and public have spoken against the Saudis on numerous occasions, but it has never warranted such an outpouring of rage and shock.

Why? Was it Khashoggi’s profession as a journalist? His association to a western major media company? Him being a resident of the US?

Regardless of the reason, it’s a shame that it should take the murder of a prominent personality to raise outcry when for a long time, everyone knew full well that thousands are being slaughtered.

Farhad Ahmad
Worcester Park

I can think of no dumber, more insensitive idea than to issue a commemorative 50p Brexit coin on 29 March next year. Politicians keep saying they need to reunite a divided country, so they force the 48 per cent who supported Remain to carry around a reminder of something they find truly loathsome. I’ll donate ten of mine to the charity of choice of whoever comes up with the sarkiest nickname for it.

Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell

I think that every government statement should have a public health warning attached to it.

It should read: WARNING – this statement may contain lies; alternative viewpoints should be considered. Failure to take note of those viewpoints may lead to democratic disaster.

Chris Bonfield
Address supplied

Nick Clegg (ex-Liberal Democrat leader now working for Facebook) claims passing a Brexit deal will be Theresa May’s last act as PM: “It’ll be like a bumblebee after a sting: she’ll die the moment she delivers that hotchpotch Brexit.”

If Clegg must use redundant metaphors, could he at least be correct: a bumblebee does not die when it stings, only the honeybee.

Metaphors often backfire for Britain’s Liberals. Their tiresome Wizard of Oz one saw Clegg and old leader Thorpe promise to give brains to a Labour government and a heart to a Conservative one. Neither happened in practice, because Liberals never had the nerve.

Mark Boyle
Johnstone