It is difficult not to question every decision the government makes

The government’s response to concerns about the “party” (or whatever it was) held in Downing Street last Christmas is symptomatic of the highly damaging moral vacuum at the heart of government.

Listening to ministers such as Dominic Raab, Kit Malthouse and others wriggle through the semantics of the explanation would be pitiful if not for the blatant, but pathetic, attempt to obfuscate. When we hear these ministers trotting out the same woeful justifications repeatedly we wonder about the political judgment of the Tory propaganda machine.

Surely advisors realise that everyone can see through the Orwellian doublespeak? Treating the electorate with contempt might be more damaging to a free and open society than the original “misjudgment”, although that is, admittedly, debatable.

There is now a very strong pattern of government ignoring the rules that it doesn’t like followed, on exposure, by repeated feeble defence. Every time the message is that honesty, integrity and following the rules don’t matter. But these are some of the pillars of democracy. This phenomenon alone is enough to suspect, and question, every single decision this government makes. And no, all politicians are not the same.

David Lowndes

Southampton

The population are good little soldiers that do what they are told, but they are not very good in using their own common sense and initiative. Many have lost confidence in or ignore the prime minister’s Covid-19 rules because he himself doesn’t follow them or does U-turns on his policies.

Boris Johnson’s unrealistic plan to drag away doctors from their patients to work in vaccination centres for a year will create severe consequences to the already crumbling NHS. Describing the NHS as “resilient” is an insult to all those working in an understaffed overworked environment.

Jeannette Schael

Tadley

On Saturday morning I caught the East Midlands 10.15 train service from Kettering to St Pancras. The carriages were so full it was difficult even to climb on board. The whole journey was spent standing shoulder to shoulder in the very crowded gangway. Most people were wearing masks, but social distancing was out of the question.

Why are train service providers not required to, at least, warn passengers about such conditions?

Richard Griffith

Glendon

The F1 Grand Prix at Jeddah’s Corniche circuit in Saudi Arabia is being widely reported as a success. If success is measured by the amount of frenzied activity in the stewards’ control centre then it must be said that there was plenty of that.

Much as I am pleased at the fact that Lewis Hamilton eventually won yesterday’s event I am inclined to agree with Max Verstappen’s view that F1 racing these days seems to revolve more around the regulations than on the spectacle of the race itself.

Hamilton and his team will be very relieved to have forced a final showdown in Abu Dhabi next week but deep down the F1 circus cannot have been content at the regulatory agonies they and the watching public were subjected to during these shambolic proceedings. Those in charge of F1’s direction of travel still have some tricky corners to negotiate before achieving the right balance between safety on track and the exhilaration of free-flowing racing.

J Wells

Alresford

With regard to the government desire to be able to overturn judicial rulings (‘Reforms could let ministers overuse judicial reviews’, 5 December) and Dominic Raab’s view that the balance between privacy and free speeches slipped too much in favour of free speech, there a world of difference between overruling a legal judgement and protecting one’s privacy.

Roland Metcalf

Manchester