Boris Johnson keeps scoring own goals – time to send him off the pitch

In Andrew Woodcock’s article, he reports that Charles Walker, a 1922 Committee member, said: “It’s serious now but not at a critical level yet.” Mr Johnson has presided over thousands of unnecessary Covid deaths, bungled Brexit negotiations, headed up a lying, deceitful and divisive government, and Mr Walker says it’s not critical!

There are many British families suffering the aftermath of Mr Johnson’s gross mishandling of the past two years. It is compounded by his, and the Conservative Party’s, patent lack of empathy for those less able to fend for themselves.

His Dickensian attitude towards “lesser mortals” permeates throughout his party which, until now, has followed him willingly. I wouldn’t pay him the compliment of calling him a bad manager – he couldn’t run a bath, let alone a country.

And the 1922 Committee’s treasurer, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, euphemistically told us that Mr Johnson ought to stop scoring “own goals”. But we all know that he ought to have been sent off long ago.

The Conservative Party have no coherent plan for Britain’s future. Instead, they are willing to leave us rudderless in our descent into a world where football is played without a referee.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

As someone who assumed all senior civil servants were like Sir Humphrey in Yes, Prime Minister, I was surprised by how youthful and stubbled the current cabinet secretary, Simon Case, looks.

Alan Pack

Canterbury

So Rishi Sunak was, by all accounts, enjoying the sun in his California beach house while businesses here collapsed. Did he find, like his colleague Dominic Raab, the sea was closed?

Nigel Groom

Witham

Does it not occur to those suggesting that retired teachers be lured back to fill the Covid-induced gaps that there is a reason they retired.

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They are sick of the endless targets and curriculum changes forced upon the profession by politicians and bureaucrats with no knowledge of education. They are tired of meaningless league tables, arbitrary assessments and being forced to teach by rote to narrow specifications rather than stimulate and inspire their students.

They don’t want to live in dread of the random arrival of Ofsted hit squads (sorry, “inspectors”) or spend extra unpaid hours on pointless, tickbox paperwork.

Much like their stressed and burnt-out colleagues in the similarly overmanaged and under-resourced NHS, they have earned their escape many times over. While they should be welcomed back if they wish to return, they should feel no pressure to do so, and no guilt should they not.

Mike Margetts

Kilsby