When Grant Shapps says everything’s under control, we know it’s time to worry

When Grant Shapps tries to reassure us that everything is under control, we know it’s time to be concerned.

It has been on his watch that the UK has effectively banned inbound travel on the grounds of protecting the UK from importing Covid from countries with much lower infection rates than our own. And it is on his watch that the HGV driver testing regime has failed to keep up with a demand that should have been entirely predictable.

Having given the Brexit message to EU citizens that they are no longer welcome to live in the UK, it should surprise no one that they have left. This would have been equally true without Covid. But in addition to drivers choosing not to live here anymore, we should not forget the new rules which forbid cabotage.

Maybe, if things get really bad before Christmas, those Brexit chickens (and turkeys) won’t have any means of coming home to roost.

Charles Wood

Birmingham

What a shambles!  It has taken the sights of cars queuing round the block to buy fuel to galvanise the dynamic duo of Kwarteng and Shapps into doing something.

It must have been blindingly obvious what was going to happen months ago. Was a shortage of 100,000 lorry drivers not cause for concern? It reminds us older ones of the early film antics of Laurel and Hardy, with their regular catchphrase, “Another fine mess you’ve got us into Stanley”.

Kwarteng has been described as one of the better performing ministers – and if this is so, then heaven help the rest of them.

Ian Wingfield

Derbyshire

The problem with a just-in-time economy, as we are now learning to our cost, is that it is vulnerable to disruptions in the market.

Our misfortune at this time of serial shocks is to have a government with a last-minute mindset, that only allows it to recognise crises when ministers are hit in the face by them.

In a dizzying U-turn, the government is now scrambling to issue temporary visas in the hopes of luring back European drivers who left during Covid. But the question is, why on earth would they want to come back?

Anne Wolff

Maidenhead

Thank you for Donnachadh McCarthy’s summary of the climate report.

It proves that we need to immediately act to prevent climate catastrophe, come hell or high water, or else comes hell and high water.

Ian Henderson

Norwich

I am not at all sure how far the government should go in supporting utility companies.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but I don’t think they produce the energy themselves.

Rather, they appear to be account administrators, unable to offer members of the public “deals” which are any more than pricing schedules.

Cole Davis

Norwich