Should we really be surprised by Trussonomics and all that goes with it?

Should we be surprised by Trussonomics and all that goes with it? It is merely an extension of what has gone before, led by the Johnson and Trump administrations: forget telling the truth; forget morality; forget a duty of care to the majority of the citizens for whom you are responsible. Ignore the environment and fiscal responsibility; dance around legality. Instead, say what you think will keep you in power (though the Truss-Kwarteng double act can’t even be bothered by that pretence), ignore problems likely to occur in the future and look after yourself and your mates.

This is sadly a serious deterioration in the ethics of government that I trust will be reversed in due course – there have been similar dark times before – but the mess in the meantime will be considerable, and whoever is upright enough to undertake the clear-up will have a huge challenge. Britain and its people will suffer while we wait.

Tim Sidaway

Abbots Langley

I see the Robin Hood airport is to close next month. Might saving it not be considered an ideal levelling-up project for the government?

Dr Anthony Ingleton Sheffield

As Benjamin Britten buffs, my wife and I drove down from Cambridge to stay in Aldeburgh. In the Maltings was the annual Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival, a celebration of seasonal fayre, locally produced wines and handcrafted beers.

A useful pocket guide to the town makes a timely reminder of a four-way funding alliance between the Suffolk Coast, East Suffolk Council, the government, and the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund.

“Everything you wanted to know about Liz Truss but were too afraid to ask,” said Politico. “Swot up on Britain’s incoming prime minister as Boris Johnson heads for the exit.” If Johnson really has followed Shakespeare’s stage directions, “Exit, pursued by a bear”, Act III of The Winter’s Tale, it comes as something of a non-plus. He’s more likely waiting in the wings. Let’s hope Liz Truss follows Winston Churchill’s dictum: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Maggi Hambling’s sculpture stands against the swelling seas on the pebble beach between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness. Etched into its perimeter are words by George Crabbe, later reimagined by Benjamin Britten. “Voices that will not be drowned.” Europhiles are indeed voices that will not be drowned today. We continue to vent our spleens at every opportunity. Why did we leave Europe? Boris Johnson’s wish to create a modern successor to London’s legendary routemaster buses has been a signature policy of his mayoralty. But his quest for PM by exiting Europe was hardly Keir Hardie’s triumphant ride atop a London bus.

Kit Thompson

Cambridge

War is horrendous. It tears apart the social fabric of communities. It leaves children orphaned, traumatised and women widowed and at an increased risk of sexual violence, rape and diseases. War leaves entire communities to grapple with communicable and non-communicable diseases and myriad psychological scars that take decades to heal. Does the international community really need a nuclear armageddon to stop the Russian-Ukranian war from escalation and mitigate further universal human calamity?

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London

Jacob Rees-Mogg believes that Kremlin moles have been supporting the anti-fracking lobby. Has he considered the possibility that a liberal mole is out to destroy the electoral prospects of the Tory party?

David Leak

Twickenham

From the very moment Kwasi Kwarteng stood up to deliver his mini-Budget the pound began tanking and has continued to tank as the market’s confidence in UK PLC has hit new lows unseen since the country was bailed out by the IMF in 1976. The origins of that humiliating bail-out go back to Anthony Barber’s disastrous dash for growth four years earlier. There are parallels but the situation now is far more serious than 1972 in that growth was already a robust 4.3 per cent, inflation half the current headline rate and debt to GDP significantly lower.

In 1972 there was still a well-functioning welfare state and an NHS fully supported by both major parties, termed “Butskellism” with child poverty after housing costs about half today’s level and income inequality much lower largely due to Family Income Supplement. A One Nation Tory tradition still prevailed but was soon to be shattered by the Thatcher revolution. This latest free-market gamble carried risks that could be seen from outer space. Unfortunately for the country these were dismissed by the most economically illiterate or ideologically rigid Tory prime minister and her chancellor a narrow and self-serving membership could foist upon the country.

Paul Dolan

Cheshire