Ron DeSantis has read the tea leaves and finally given up

All of the world is abuzz with the politics of the US and examining these events gives some wisdom on what not to do.

Ron DeSantis has read the tea leaves and given up his dream of being the next president of the United States. In doing so, he has dashed the hopes of many who don’t want Donald Trump to win the nomination – much less the election.

Trump is apparently “honoured” to be endorsed by DeSantis, which seems odd given how poorly he spoke about the Florida governor. Surely a reference from someone you insulted isn’t credible?

Maybe this endorsement is a desperate effort by DeSantis to get the nod for the vice-president job and then hope that Trump is jailed, disqualified – or both.

The world of politics is unchanging. It remains full of different characters; occasionally the best of the best and lately some celebrities, as well as those who lack character and honesty, many who lack intellect, and a few trying to do the right thing. It makes me wonder: if there are so many wanting these jobs, why are there so few good candidates?

Remember the value of your vote and choose the best person – not the loudest or the most popular.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Address Supplied

Lord Owen has suggested that our very own Nigel Farage be dispatched forthwith to the US to support “the Donald” in his re-election campaign. He goes further to suggest that Farage be elevated to ambassador to the USA on Trump’s re-election, so he can take up residence in the White House and convince Donald to maintain preferential relations with the UK.

Our resident “Liar-in-Chief”, the former prime minister Boris Johnson, firmly believes that the world will be a safer place with Trump at the helm.

According to Farage and Johnson’s historic utterances and promises, we should by now be lounging in the sunny uplands with £350m going to the NHS weekly.

That would be the same NHS which does not have the budget to pay its medical staff a living wage.

One could not make this up! Where do we find these people?

Gunter Straub

London

Prominent among the four core values of the civil service code are integrity (putting the obligations of public service above your own interests) and honesty (being truthful and open). Those values appear somewhat at odds with an ethos of “plausible deniability”.

Well, we do not have to imagine, because evidence to the Covid Inquiry has already laid bare the consequences.

With that going on, with corporate leadership unable to see right from wrong, what chance that more junior staff will be able and willing to stand up for integrity and honesty? Or will those who want successful careers simply take their cue from the role models above them?

So this is not about one rogue, slippery official who got caught being too clever by half, it is about whether the high ideals of the civil service code have real meaning in our government. That is why we need urgently an independent root and branch review of the culture of the civil service. Sadly, I expect that the only review will be an internal one that tries to stop embarrassing evidence from getting to public inquiries in future.

John Attkens

Address supplied

To say I agree with Kate Hall’s comments about immigrants, in her recent letter to The Independent (Your View, yesterday), is an understatement. She states so well how this “hot topic” has been highjacked by a gung-ho and intractable government. They are men, women and children like us, who have been forced to escape dangerous situations in their own countries. How would we react if placed in the same situation?

We do indeed need to turn this on its head; look for the positives and not emphasise the negatives at every turn of the cold and callous rhetoric. She is correct, there are very rarely sensible and compassionate ways outlined of dealing with this issue. Instead, we have our prime minister holding a press conference demanding that the Lords deliver the goods in favour of his Rwanda bill!

I still think that the British people are on the whole fair-minded and would embrace the proactive and sensible measures that Ms Hall outlines. Somehow this government has taken the “human” out of human beings and made them seem almost like an invading alien force.

Judith A. Daniels

Norfolk

As if the recent events surrounding the Rwanda bill were not enough, the in-fighting in the parliamentary Conservative Party goes on.

On Sunday you had the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, touring the television studios promising major investment in his department.

Yet on the same day, the former defence secretary, Penny Mordaunt, was scathing over what has happened to the department over the last 14 years.

And as if that wasn’t enough, on the same day the government confirmed that some of the asylum seekers who had been trafficked across the English Channel had either gone missing or been given permission to work.

Yet instead of supporting the government in finding the missing asylum seekers or their availability for work, what does the former minister responsible for this area, Robert Jenrick, do? He refuses to rule out sparking another Tory leadership contest and challenging Rishi Sunak for the top job himself.

You couldn’t make it up.

People aren’t interested in leadership elections any more. The people want a general election!

Geoffrey Brooking

Havant

Nikki Haley is the only interesting candidate in an otherwise boring GOP primary. Despite the inevitable sideshow Trump drama, she is now the establishment’s final chance to beat him.

She could take Trump down a peg on Wednesday, though he is well out ahead. But New Hampshire (since Chris Christie dropped out) is a different story. Although “uneventful”, the primary is more or less now a one-on-one contest.

And, no pun intended, Haley is in fact biting at Trump’s heels with a close race expected in New England, after. Still, with the final results from Iowa, Trump could get a larger vote there than any GOP non-incumbent.

Yet Haley is anything but down and out. Some on the right are willing to admit that she is indeed an establishment favourite, and for good reason: she is tougher. Combative, too.

I am glad that Haley is supported by mainline GOP voters, unlike right-wing fanatics, obsessed with egotistical Trump.

Angus West

Boston, MA