Hard-working retail staff should get a day off on platinum jubilee day

Retail staff have kept the country fed – and have kept open a modicum of the productive economy. Therefore, some kind of retail closure to mark the platinum jubilee is surely in order to enable retail staff to partake in platinum events in their communities such as their street parties – and thus opportunity to connect with fellow citizens.

Retail closure would also be commercially shrewd – more goods would be bought beforehand. A win-win.

John Barstow

Usdaw Executive Council

West Sussex

Since three-word slogans such as “Get Brexit Done” seem to have been so successful, may I suggest one for the next election. “Get Boris Out.”

Alan Pack

Kent

We’ll never know, because the Met Police couldn’t be bothered to investigate Boris Johnson’s Abba-themed party held at Downing Street on the 13 November 2020, but I wonder if the playlist looked like this:

· Money, Money, Money

· Hole in your Soul

· Dum Dum Diddle

· Under Attack

· Disillusion

· Should I Laugh or Cry?

· The King Has Lost His Crown

· I Wonder (Departure)

· Move On

· So Long

Sasha Simic

London

Speaking about the Northern Ireland protocol, Lord Hain said this government has “lost trust as an honest broker”. This is the disease of which Partygate is only one symptom. When trust is broken, it is incredibly difficult to regain. Most people will believe the best of others until they are proved wrong, but are greatly angered by those who have abused their trust. The British police had it once, but more groups of people are now feeling betrayed by those whose job is to uphold the law. Those whose job is to make the laws are likewise losing the trust of voters.

The PM’s latest “defence” to Sue Gray’s report now reads like an estate agent’s listing. He is responsible for the failures in No 10 – the failures to do the right thing, and the concern only for “optics” and “we got away with it”. All this is a direct consequence of choosing a leader with no morals whose only commitment is to himself. Manifesto promises (such as the triple lock for pensions, and no further tax rises) are discarded without a thought – there are always excuses given for acting in a way that destroys trust. But none of them matter.

He feels he’s got away with it, too. He may well cling to power until the next election. Death by a thousand betrayals will continue, because that is his nature. Every single Tory MP who refrains from acting is complicit in this, and must also share the responsibility for the world-beating eradication of trust in the UK government in our time.

Katharine Powell

Neston

To keep Boris Johnson in power is a danger to the country. Heaven forbid that this should occur but another pandemic could quite easily happen. Picture the scene: Boris emerging from 10 Downing Street addressing the nation in his grave tones saying “We must all stay at home, no mixing, no family gathering” etc, who on earth are going to adhere to this after the example he has shown the country?

Consequently, important safeguards will not be effective because he commands zero respect from the people. Thousands will be at risk and our hapless government powerless to do anything about it. I urge the Tory party to “move on” the present PM and put someone in place who will keep us safe .

Celia Ryan

Derbyshire

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I am deeply relieved that I can now lie with abundance, never having to take responsibility. It’s what I believed at the time I said or did so.

No accountability. What’s good for Boris is good enough for me. Thank you Boris for clarifying this.

Gunter Straub

London