The government has lost control of Covid and is doing what the incompetent always do – blame others

Hauliers are the problem one week, pig farmers the next, now it seems the public are to blame for not stepping up to have their booster jabs and threatening the health of the NHS.

The government continues to run around like headless chickens and doing what the incompetent do as a first line of defence – blame others. If they are keen to learn lessons, as they pretend they are, they need to understand that optimism and words are not enough. You need a plan – plan B, I would suggest – and you need capable, dedicated people to enact it. There is little sign of these in our present-day cabinet, and both the public and hard-pressed NHS staff are the ones who are paying for it.

Jane Mogford

Cirencester, Gloucestershire

I’m in my mid-seventies and, according to a text and letter from the NHS, “may have a significantly weakened immune system”. So yesterday’s article by Samuel Lovett and the statement the previous evening from Sajid Javid speak directly to me.

My recent experience suggests that the government is losing control of Covid, choosing instead to blame the public for not taking up the vaccine.

Have you tried to take up a vaccine? I have. As instructed by the NHS letter, I rang my GP and was told my file had not been flagged but they booked me in anyway. However, the earliest date available was 28 November. I suspect that despite what Sajid Javid said yesterday, they simply don’t have enough vaccines, though there is no shortage of arms.

We need truth and competence from the government, not spin, delusions and buck-passing from Javid trying his best to emulate Boris Johnson for bluster, avoidance and untruths.

John Simpson

Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire

The argument that goes “because Britain is a small country we needn’t bother with reducing CO2” appeared again in yesterday’s letters. This is completely wrong. Firstly, Britain historically is responsible for a large proportion of the climate emergency that we are now in and so should be making big efforts to fix the problem. But more importantly, If we accept that each human being has a right to live on the planet then those of us who acquire and consume more than a fair share of resources should be making efforts to reduce our impact.

Putting people into arbitrary groupings called countries and then pointing out that the biggest ones emit large amounts of CO2 obscures the truth; it is not an argument that can absolve us from our responsibility.

Ashley Herbert

Huddersfield

Andy Brown’s letter yesterday on China and the climate crisis presents a problem, but offers no suggestions for a solution.

There are much smaller and poorer nations than the UK pleading for change, demanding our help and action, and suffering under climate change. I wonder why they are not simply sitting back and waiting for China and India, as two of the more important polluters, to perform an act of God-like power to hold back the oceans for them?

The whole point about preventing the destruction of the human race is that everybody needs to act and do what they can. The UK may well be acting like the Dutch boy who saved his country by putting his finger in the leaking dyke to prevent the whole ocean flooding in. The analogy with the climate crisis is a good one – someone small and clever can exercise extraordinary power if they act soon enough.

The UK has laid waste to vast tracts of the world and set in motion industries and societal structures that are demonstrably unsustainable. I somehow doubt that Cop26 will bring about the changes and investments needed to pull us back to a sustainable path.

But we must do what we can and set an example, no matter how small it might seem.

Michael Mann

Shrewsbury

We can see the daily figures for Covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths, and we can see the likely trends for the next few weeks. The government has been here before and, despite the dreadful experiences of each phase of the pandemic, the government has failed to learn from our experience; it fails to learn from the experience of other countries and it ignores the report of MPs into the government’s woeful performance in addressing the pandemic. By the time it is dragged reluctantly to implement plan B it will be too late and we will be heading for another lockdown.

John E Harrison

Chorley, Lancashire

I do hope that those who are foolish enough to refuse vaccinations against Covid aren’t going to expect the new antiviral drugs when they contract the virus.

Tim Sidaway

Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire