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Your support makes all the difference.In everything we witnessed yesterday, have we seen the limits of Dominic Cummings’ abilities? I’m prepared to accept that he was a very skilful architect of the Leave campaign, but judging by what happened in the Commons, he seems to know very little about parliamentary procedure. Is Boris Johnson being badly advised? I wonder.
Steve Mumby
Bournemouth
Integrity restored
May I through your pages say a warm and heartfelt thank you to the members of parliament of different parties who made common cause last night. They put the interests of our country first, and voted in support of the measure designed to stop a disastrous no deal Brexit.
And I wish to pay tribute particularly to the ‘rebel’ Conservative MPs who defied the threat (since carried out) to remove the Whip from them. Their integrity is a beacon in the darkness of the Brexit divisions, lies, deceit, and attacks on our precious democratic institutions.
Let us hope that others follow where they lead.
Doreen Wilkinson
Ewell, Surrey
A Johnson gag
Chantal Gautier’s thoughtful piece in Wednesday’s Independent allows an opportunity to recycle an old joke.
Q: How can you tell if Boris Johnson is lying?
A: His lips are moving.
John Bailey
Preston
What are we watching?
When looking at the people floundering on the front bench of government my grip on time is confused. On one hand it appears as the worst of the past, where arrogant, spoilt, incompetent and unelected members of parliament, there simply out of boredom or because they were unable to hold down a real job, harrumph at each other in between (or, in some cases, during) meals and siestas.
On another there is a feeling that the future is here. It is a world where artificial intelligence and robots hold dominion; and humans have no role but to pursue a life of leisure, and for amusement ham actors in the decaying museum of the Houses of Parliament to strut and fret in a poorly written historical pageant. The vision as one of the present is too disturbing to contemplate.
Matt Minshall
Norfolk
Don’t give Johnson what he wants
Opposition parties considering whether to support the prime minister’s call for an October general election could do worse than turning to the Ashes for inspiration, where captain Joe Root will often be trying to do what his opponents would like least.
Boris Johnson would probably love an immediate general election with a campaign based on a nationalist rallying cry with him styled as the plucky hero of the British people fighting against foreign powers aided and abetted by a treacherous parliament. Having previously been left dangling from a zip wire, what he might like least is being left dangling again.
Unable to force no-deal Brexit, unable to secure a Brexit deal which parliament will approve, and politically damaged if he delays Brexit, he will be in office but not in control, without even a parliamentary majority to enable him to deliver a domestic programme.
When a general election does eventually follow, his bluff and bluster may have worn thin with more of the electorate, allowing those opposition parties to capitalise.
Adrian McBurnie
Aberdeen
I hope MPs resist the temptation to give Boris his election. I want to see his Queen’s Speech proposals. I want to see him govern and see what a fist he makes if it. Interesting if he can do all these things he has proposed despite being in the EU.
Maurizio Moore
Brentwood
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