Conservatives adrift
SIR – The Conservative Party is now Conservative in name only. The Chancellor Philip Hammond boasts of soaking the rich. Sensible advice from the US on Huawei’s involvement in infrastructure is ignored. The brilliant Roger Scruton is sacked as a Government adviser on absurd grounds, while quangos remain packed with misguided liberals. Stamp duty remains at levels that are killing the property market. The foreign aid budget continues to waste most of £13billion a year. Political correctness infects all areas of Government.
It is an irony, however, to see Nick Timothy complaining about this in his piece entitled “Tories must renew as the National Party or be eclipsed by Farage” (Comment, April 25). Mr Timothy co-authored the 2017 Conservative manifesto, which kicked off Theresa May’s abandonment of Conservative principles. The result was the loss of a 24-point lead in the opinion polls and of the Government’s majority.
Britain continues, at its heart, to be a Conservative nation. It is crying out for firm, Conservative government. The Tories must abandon the politically moribund Mrs May for a leader who believes in its core principles – and quickly. Gregory Shenkman
London W8
SIR – Nick Timothy is right to emphasise the seriousness of the Tories’ failure to keep their promises over Brexit. Likewise, he is right to dwell on the “cynical game” played by Remainers who have claimed to “honour” the 2016 referendum result while doing all in their power to thwart it. Politics practised on this model becomes unsustainable. Professor Richard Mullender
Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University
SIR – Governments and politicians can make mistakes and be forgiven – but voters will not forgive incompetence.
The country is desperately in need of fresh leadership. We need a prime minister who has vision, commitment to the Brexit process and a belief in Britain.
Such a person doesn’t necessarily need to be popular across the whole country: Margaret Thatcher never was, but she was none the less the most effective PM in recent times. Tony Starkey
Crackington Haven, Cornwall
SIR – The Prime Minister’s handling, first of Brexit and now of the row over Huawei, seems to fit Lord Macaulay’s description (in his History of England) of James II’S management of a similarly major predicament: “At last, as usually happens when a weak man tries to avoid opposite inconveniences, he took a course which united them all.” Hamish Thomson
Sheepscombe, Gloucestershire