Britain is broken – and it may now be beyond repair

Sean O’Grady put into words what I have been feeling for some time. But it isn’t just our infrastructure which is failing. Our institutions are inadequate, with staff poorly trained and often reluctant to take responsibility. Royal Mail cannot deliver reliably, volume construction companies build poor-quality homes and water companies manipulate records.

And our normal levels of behaviour are slipping too. I find that drivers will park where they can, regardless of yellow lines and parking patrols; litter and dogs’ mess proliferate; shared housing and absentee landlords mean that no one keeps their front gardens and bins tidy; drug deals take place in broad daylight and teachers fear their pupils.

We have lived for too long confident that our established behaviours will enable our communities to function with negligible policing. Having seen Boris Johnson’s behaviour during Covid and his hesitant apologies this week, I wonder if we had another pandemic, would the nation lock down so obligingly again?

Angela Conder

Gloucester

Rishi Sunak is looking increasingly like a gambler with a problem who, when on a losing streak, continues to chase losses with more money. A £150m pot goes in the hole, and he is prepared to throw another £150m after it.

It’s time for him to heed the warnings that go with the adverts for online betting: when the fun stops, stop.

S Lawrence

Enfield

I am writing in response to the article “The Kim regime drove two North Korean sisters apart. One might now have disappeared for good”. I must ask the question; can we really be shocked that the UK has not done more to condemn the deplorable actions of China and North Korea?

I pose this question because of the UK’s approach to North Korean asylum seekers. Whilst I fully acknowledge that the UK is home to approximately 600 North Korean refugees, more than 1300 North Koreans have applied for asylum since 2003. When looking at this statistic, isn’t it obvious that the UK does not want to be accused of hypocrisy if they condemn China and North Korea’s forcible repatriation scheme?

Charlotte Peters

Newcastle

In many ways the current Rwanda spat is a rerun of Brexit. This is particularly the case in respect of populist politicians having a field day, and this at practically everyone else’s expense.

That said there is one significant difference. This time the economic cost to the taxpayer has already happened (to the tune of £290m).

As with Brexit, we now need an election to sort things out – though hopefully this time in a better direction.

Andrew McLuskey

Address supplied