Theresa May and Tony Blair have something in common – they’re both as deluded as each other

It’s often said that power corrupts. I hope that’s not inevitable; it would be good to think that our leaders are basically decent people.

But there is plenty of evidence that too much power causes delusions.

Tony Blair was deluded about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

David Cameron was deluded when he called a referendum for the sake of the unity of his party, and was so confident in his assumption that he would get the result he wanted that he failed both to campaign and to prepare for the “wrong” answer from the people.

Theresa May’s delusions about Brexit are too numerous to list.

Donald Trump holds many false beliefs, though that may not be purely the effect of power. But the US system does at least have ways of holding rogue presidents in check.

Our first-past-the-post voting system, coupled with our adversarial parliamentary system, accords far too much power to one person.

Something has to change.

Susan Alexander
South Gloucestershire

President Trump said that he would be the “greatest job producer God has ever created” and in some ways he has kept this promise. The only problem is that many of these jobs are in the White House and have occurred as the result of lots of highly qualified, capable people retiring or just quitting.

The skill of a real leader, in relation to being a job producer, is to increase the total number of people having a job, not the people leaving a job.

There are many people hoping that there will be one more resignation from that grand building but that dream is unlikely to occur voluntarily.

Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne, Australia

I have never been a fan of censorship, but recall how well news censorship saved the morale of the people of this country in the Second World War.

An example was Churchill’s ban on us knowing of the 749 men lost at Slapton Sands preparing for the D-Day landings.

I think it’s now time for our news media to stop reporting on the occupants of small boats being rescued from the English Channel.

Our broadcasters should realise that Sky and BBC News are seen all over Europe, and thus scoundrels are exploiting desperate economic migrants, parting them from their savings and sending them on a deeply dangerous journey.

And they are taking the journey expecting to be rescued by our authorities and given a new home here, whereas in reality a terrifying death by drowning possibly awaits.

Dai Woosnam
Grimsby

I am sick to death of listening to Theresa May say she must follow the “will of the people”. That would be the will of the people as expressed in the 2016 referendum, and an assumption that no one has changed their mind.

But I recall the same Theresa May appearing on a TV show in September 2016 saying there would be no election until 2020, who then changed her mind and called an election the following spring.

Wow! So the PM can change her mind and find a way to execute that change but the rest of us can’t. I can’t decide if this is hubris, arrogance, or the action of a repressive dictator. It has nothing to do with the will of the people.

Many of my friends and I might have changed our minds about membership of the EU. So I want the same opportunity to express that that the PM gave herself. Isn’t that the true will of the people?

Steve Mumby
Bournemouth

I always turn to the Letters page of The Independent first to hear the latest froth on Brexit. Yesterday, I was particularly amused by the demand for David Cameron to apologise for holding a referendum on EU membership, alongside demands for another one.

Thomas Quinn