The government needs to stop making matters worse

The Post Office scandal highlights why we need a new approach to politics that sets aside government by gimmick in favour of listening to people’s deep concerns and acting to address them.

The government is constantly cleaning up after its own mess and expending untold energy on performative policies that no one believes will work. Just look at the Post Office – a scandal in the making from the day ministers decided to downgrade its public service ethos in a drive for profits.

That meant rushed, bungled and, ultimately, catastrophic decisions on outsourcing complex IT that led to hundreds of honest people being condemned as thieves and fraudsters.

Now we have the Rwanda deportation policy – another scandal unfolding in real time before our eyes. The government is legislating that a country is safe for people fleeing torture and tyranny when every shred of objective evidence says that is just not true.

Everything is fraying at the edges, and the government seems to be dividing its time equally between cleaning up after past bad decisions and making new ones. The government needs to stop making things worse.

Of course, there are determined individuals – not least the Post Office subpostmasters themselves – who have spoken out. But who was listening to them at the beginning? And how can we better support brave whistleblowers who try to expose institutional failings but are too often ignored or even bullied into silence?

Chaos, scandal and the denial of reality have become the very method of government. For this government, no one is in charge, no one cares and, when it all goes wrong, no one is responsible.

We need a politics founded on listening to people, offering practical, sensible and deliverable policies that improve people’s lives and protect our planet.

Paul Corry

The Green Party of England and Wales

The Tories are undoubtedly getting anxious at their possible loss of office in the next election for Nadhim Zahawi, a former cabinet minister, to call into question the meaning of an innocuous statement aimed at the PM.

The statement “he [the PM] doesn’t get Britain” was a direct reference to how Rishi Sunak and the Tory party misunderstand the needs of the British public. It has nothing to do with Mr Sunak’s ethnicity but rather his failure to interpret the electorate’s real needs.

For Mr Zahawi to suggest any other implied meaning is simply to distract the electorate’s attention from the abysmal failure of this Tory government.

I am sure that Mr Sunak understood, correctly, the inference in Keir Starmer’s accusation. Shame on you Zahawi.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

The persecuted subpostmasters certainly deserve every form of compensation, both material and moral, being proposed at present. I have my doubts whether the tenacious and admirable Alan Bates would want a knighthood, which would place him in the “establishment” team I suspect he would not want to join! However, if I’m wrong, he would be a fine member of the Lords, possessing far more integrity than some members of that place.

One very far-reaching consequence of this whole scandal would be government action to reverse the untouchable position companies and major institutions have awarded themselves in recent years.

Robots have replaced human beings and are paraded as helpful but are, in fact, intensely frustrating. Complaints procedures are a farce designed to wear down the complainant, while customers are mithered constantly to accept the wretched, intrusive “cookies” and report back on “how was your delivery?” and other such nonsense. Many of us – myself included – have had to lock horns with a huge company, and it is a horrible experience.

One last thing – I hope all the people the Post Office persecuted get massive financial compensation. I am just not sure why the taxpayer should be paying it, instead of it being raked back from the huge bonuses paid to culpable Post Office executives.

Penny Little

Oxfordshire

We need to wake up to the deadly consequences of bird flu.

Reports that the lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza has now been detected in sea mammals and wild birds in Antarctica is proof of the far-reaching impact of the virus, which experts predict could result in “catastrophic breeding failure”.

The solution is simple. Since the virus originated on factory farms – where chickens and other birds are forced to spend their short, miserable lives in severely crowded, filthy conditions – not eating chickens or any other living, feeling beings means fewer animals will be bred into such environments, reducing the risk of future outbreaks. Going vegan is a starting point for those looking to eat compassionately and more responsibly.

Lucy Watson

London

The discovery of hundreds of thousands of nanoplastic particles in bottled water is profoundly worrying, yet unsurprising. From the farthest oceans, to deep inside our bodies, plastic has spread to every part of our world.

Recent research by Common Seas found more than three-quarters of people tested had microplastic particles in their blood. Despite this, products wrapped in single-use plastics still fill the shelves of every shop in the country.

Over the past 50 years, single-use plastic has become a part of daily life for billions of people. We eat out of plastic containers, drink with plastic bottles, prepare food with plastic chopping boards and wrap our leftovers in plastic film. By 2040, plastic production is on track to double. Despite this colossal growth, we still don’t fully understand the human health impact of consuming plastic, how far plastic particles spread or how they accumulate in the body.

Scientists aren’t the only ones who are worried. Our petition calling for urgent funding for more research has received over 100,000 signatures so far.

There is no lack of scientific will or ingenuity in this area, and the pathways to real breakthroughs are clear. But there is nowhere near enough public and private funding to ensure scientists can do this urgent explorative work.

That’s why today we’re calling for urgent funding to help the world’s scientists get to the truth on plastic and its effects on the human body.

Jo Royle

Founder & CEO, Common Seas