We can only observe helplessly as the Tory leadership race gets under way

What an unedifying spectacle, the Conservative Party convulsing itself into knots trying to be all things to all people. Each successive PM hopeful enters the race, setting out a stall full of contradictions. Trying to demonstrate “integrity” without being disloyal, trying to associate themselves with the so-called successes of recent years while proclaiming a fresh start.

Nick Eastwell is right, any of them who supported Johnson through his long list of scandals and misdeeds should be disqualified from standing. Guilty by association. How many times can you give someone the “benefit of the doubt” without taking it upon yourself to check and not just rely on assurances from people whose careers depend on propping him up?

The problem is that this leaves a very thin field. Anyone with the necessary integrity, experience and ability was purged in 2019.

So, back to the spectacle. We the public will play the role of onlookers as every mediocrity to grace the government’s benches decides that now is the time to have a go, with the sole purpose of securing some bauble for themselves when they “gracefully withdraw “ – a job, a peerage, you get the picture. Yet we will have no say.

I hope that Keir Starmer does secure a vote of no confidence in parliament. If the Conservatives vote against it, they will be shown up as self-serving “nodding dogs”. If they can bring themselves to do the right thing, then maybe we the public will actually get our say, in a general election.

Anne Wolff

Maidenhead

Andrea Jenkyns is joining the new, shameless caretaker cabinet of average talents. Her non-verbal communication skills will serve her admirably in this company and she can use them if anyone suggests she might be an opportunistic chancer. But I don’t think they will help with discipline in schools.

Why relinquish the moral high ground before you’ve even started? Oh, wait – moral high ground is unimportant to the current Tory hierarchy. You would think she would know that decency and integrity are the new Conservative buzzwords as her new colleagues are now wriggling visibly and shamefully to embrace these values.

The mask has slipped, Andrea.  You don’t deserve to represent, or lead, anybody, let alone the children in our schools.

David Lowndes

Southampton

Jeremy Hunt’s programme shows why he should be supported as the next prime minister.

His support for doubling defence spending is necessary and is a good “One Nation” policy given the presence of many outlets of the “military-industrial complex” in far-flung areas of the United Kingdom.

His plan to suspend business rates in deprived areas is good for making areas of the north more attractive to live, work and do business in. And that is good for reducing pressure on land in the overdeveloped south.

All in all, Jeremy Hunt’s programme is good for nurturing a more cohesive UK, complete with its place as a “P5” power.

John Barstow

Pulborough

The UK’s prime minister, who could be in the post until 2024, is about to be selected by MPs and members of the Conservative Party, fewer than 200,000 people.

Let’s hope they don’t have the brass neck to claim that they have a democratic mandate.

Susan Alexander

Frampton Cotterell

If the cabinet ministers standing to lead the party knew how to sort out the various crises facing us – why didn’t they act when they were in government?

Jane Yiend

Cheltenham

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment, sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

I think it’s criminal that the government allowed hospitals in England to drop masks.

Covid is linked to increasing rates of heart problems and diabetes, not to mention long Covid, which is creating more and more vulnerable people in each wave. It is not mild and it is not over.

Vulnerable people are being made to feel crazy by a population that appears wilfully blind to the fact that there are plenty of effective public health measures which do not restrict other people’s lives but give the immunocompromised their freedom back too!

There won’t be any healthcare staff left to treat us soon. Why should they care about us, when we don’t care about them?

Liz Hallworth

Cambridgeshire