Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings don’t care about making the world better – it is all about them

Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings clearly both love to play games and are both obsessed, in very different ways, with being seen to play them to win. Neither of them are in politics to make the world a better place. It is all about them.

Johnson’s goal is to perform the role of a much-loved prime minister – he should really be on the stage where his performance can be admired, or not, without doing any damage. Cummings’s goal is to apply his theories on management in which he divides people into excellent and rubbish, and focuses on delivering at all costs without regard to what is being delivered. He seems to think that order will assert itself if he first creates chaos, which he enjoys. Both of them are obsessed with playing their particular game to win, irrespective of the consequences.

Much is wrong in UK politics, a catalyst for change is needed, but I do not see a role for either of them. Playing to the gallery and shock tactics will not build a team that draws out the strengths of individuals, promotes investigation and understanding of issues, and implements solutions fairly.

Jon Hawksley

London

How much longer must this chaotic approach to a major health crisis continue? The solution is in the hands of Conservative MPs.

It is time for Sir Graham Brady, chair of the influential 1922 committee, to step up to the plate and act. Please prove yourself worthy of your recently renewed mandate.

John Lewis

Address supplied

It is more than a little ironic that, having voted to leave the EU partly because it was unacceptable – that the EU had control over our borders – our government is unhappy that the EU does not have control over the Spanish border.

Could it possibly be the case that we were a sovereign nation all the time?

Phil Whitney

Cromford

US climate envoy John Kerry, amongst many people and organisations, said that we don’t need more investment in oil and gas exploration and production.

However, our inept and chaotic government, along with British banks and investors, still doesn’t understand the urgent need to stabilise the world’s climate. For decades the severe changes of climate warnings have gone virtually unheeded.

It’s about time for governments to heed those warnings because we’re running out of time. Our children will pick up the legacy of our total disregard to reduce our footprint on the world. Money, effort and changes not directed to the way we live, use the land, eat, and drive cars will have devastating repercussions.

Rhetoric and non-action must give way to a positive consensus of worldwide planning and cooperation which reduces the effects caused by current methods of production, lifestyle and consumption.

Although it is laudable that individuals make the effort to reduce their own emissions, it is governments, working together, that will make the difference in success or failure to solve the climate crisis – but failure is not an option to be considered.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

The prime minister has not found the time to deal with social care. We should not complain as we see him every day in a hard hat building HS2, in a white hospital coat undertaking brain surgery and in a hi-vis jacket getting in everybody’s way in so many locations.

I await the day when he dons PPE and "works" in a care home, but I am not holding my breath.

John E Harrison

Chorley, Lancashire

Hamish McRae has written about his three ways to help pay for an ageing population. People working more years is one of the answers, which is taken to mean workers retiring later. This makes sense, but part of the same problem is people starting to work later in life.

Previous generations left school, started working and paying tax at 14 or 15. Now many more start working in their late teens or even early twenties . Extra education is a good thing, and it may mean those people earn more and pay more tax, but maybe it should be part of the sum Mr McRae is working out.

Derek Thornhill

Gloucestershire