How much longer can we pretend that Britain is a democracy?

How long can we continue to pretend that our country is a parliamentary democracy when matters as crucial to our long-term future as the axeing of HS2 can be decided autocratically by the prime minister without any reference whatsoever to parliament?

David Brown

York

After the not particularly long-awaited – nor anticipated considering how many Tory MPs simply didn’t make it to Manchester – Rishi Sunak’s speech was not so much hot air as bad air. It had a whiff about it.

Maybe it was the stench from the sewage-adulterated waterways that filled the already odd English summer with the pungent odour of decades of greed and decay. Maybe it was the rot of years of inhuman rhetoric and incompetent management of the migrant issue. Maybe it was just the smell of rot you get when doors have been closed to the light and the fresh breezes of common sense and common decency for far too long. Maybe it was eau-de-bile rising at images of Nigel Farage schmoozing Priti Patel; dancing while the country goes to hell just as Boris Johnson partied through Covid.

But no amount of announcing policies he won’t be around to mess up can hide the desperate stink of subconscious eulogy delivered by Sunak on behalf of the Conservative Party at the 2023 Tory party conference.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Everybody said there is no way of improving transport in the north until an HS2 link was in place. No argument, quite obvious, silly to suggest the opposite. Now we see that with HS2 cancelled, we will apparently spend £36bn to improve the North. How can that possibly happen?

More likely is that the £36bn will be spent “around the country” and when the south has had its pickings there won’t be any left for the north.

Robert Murray

Nottingham

Rishi Sunak has, at last, come out and confessed his intention to no longer continue with the building of the HS2 line to the north. There may be plans for compensating for the loss by improving travel in other respects. 

But there are many lessons to be learnt from this debacle. One of them is that if you really intend to “level up” you need to start in the area that needs to be improved, not in the place, like London, that’s “up” already.

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

As a fellow Catholic, I naturally read Catherine Pepinster’s column with interest and a great deal of agreement. As the Synod begins after the collation of so many views and opinions across the world from Catholic men and women, it is now the pivotal time to discuss the many issues facing our church.

She is correct to state that the Pope has facilitated many much-needed reforms and does extend a listening ear to the many, different demographics in the church. He bends significantly to compassion and walking in other people’s ill-fitting shoes, because they feel, for whatever reason somewhat disenfranchised from the church.

As to the “hot topic” of women, the Synod needs to elucidate why many talented and committed women, who long to serve in prescribed roles are not permitted, one being the ordination of women deacons. Pepinster is right to state that women are essential to the smooth running of our parishes in their many roles, but to aim any higher in the Catholic hierarchy, there is no real chance of breaking the stained glass ceiling.

Although it is welcome that the Pope has extended Vatican roles to women, there is so much more to be done to enfranchise us. With the alternative Synod, leading women speakers will bang the drum for the cessation of being sidelined. This is a huge opportunity for the Catholic Church and let’s hope and pray that real, proactive and sustained change is making inroads into what is the 21st century, where women in every other walk of life and careers want and do make a significant and proactive difference.

Judith A. Daniels

Norfolk