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Letters: It was politically inept of Tory MPs to abandon Liz Truss so readily

Liz Truss speaking outside Downing Street having resigned as prime minister - ap
Liz Truss speaking outside Downing Street having resigned as prime minister - ap

SIR – Liz Truss made mistakes in the scope and timing of her mini-Budget (“Truss: I was brought down by the left-wing economic establishment”, report, February 5). However, she promulgated policies that had appealed to the Conservative members.

The backlash against her, unforgivably led by senior politicians who had wanted Rishi Sunak as prime minister, was designed to bring about her downfall and land us with policies that they all now seem to disavow.

If Tory MPs had got behind her and effected some revision behind closed doors, they would have had a chance of coming back from the negative polls. Their lack of political nous has cost them the next general election.

At least we have Reform UK to support instead.

David Wilson
Cottingham, East Yorkshire


SIR – Liz Truss’s government was not defeated by a “left-wing economic establishment” and “the blob”. Rather it was Liz Truss’s economic policies that defeated the Truss government.

People like me who lead pension funds – and lend money to the British Government – take a dim view of generous tax cuts without material spending reductions. Such policies exacerbate inflation and raise the risk of lending to the Government. Pension funds demanded higher interest rates from the Truss government to compensate for such risks.

“Treasury orthodoxy”, which Liz Truss and her allies dislike so much, is merely belief in sound public finances, low inflation and free markets as essential foundations for economic growth. In Britain, faster growth also requires higher investment, more liberal planning rules, minimum trade friction and a higher-skilled workforce.

With their focus on unfunded tax cuts, rather than the essential drivers of growth, Ms Truss’s policies were the enemy of her own government.

Nick Dixon
Bath, Somerset


SIR – Liz Truss has claimed that no one from the Treasury briefed her or members of her team on the risks to bonds markets posed by liability-driven investments.

If that is true, those civil servants massively failed to do their jobs. Why are they still in their posts?

N Hepworth
Lancing, West Sussex


SIR – If the Government is serious about growing the economy then it needs to listen less to the bean counters in the Treasury and more to the entrepreneurs who make things happen and create wealth and employment in the process.

Christopher Gill
Aberdyfi, Merionethshire


SIR – For someone who consciously aped Margaret Thatcher to be so unaware of the consequences of spooking the markets illustrates precisely why Liz Truss had to go.

John Meachen
Cringleford, Norfolk


Tanks for Ukraine

SIR – There is another reason why the West should supply Ukraine with main battle tanks (MBTs) as soon as possible.

It appears that in the initial assault by the Russians, many of their MBTs were destroyed by the Swedish NLAW or American Javelin missiles. These missiles attack the MBT from above, where it has minimum armour. The Russians will undoubtedly be trying to develop a similar missile and, if they succeed before the Ukrainians can mount their counter attack, the chances of success will be greatly reduced.

Indeed, once both sides have missiles that attack from above, all existing MBTs could well be obsolete and a new design required. As the Defence Secretary recently said, we can’t use the “shield of sentimentality to protect previously battle-winning but now outdated capabilities”.

Colonel Dion Beard (retd)
Sunningdale, Berkshire


Patients left in pain

SIR – I was greatly troubled to read of the suffering endured by Jeremy Brier at A&E with the pain resulting from kidney stones (Comment, February 5).

In the 1960s, it would have been dealt with by a call to the GP who would visit, usually within an hour or less, and give the appropriate pain-relieving injection. It was as simple as that. What has gone wrong? The changes to general practice since the 1960s have not been improvements.

Dr Peter I Vardy
Runcorn, Cheshire


SIR – Jeremy Brier’s description of being ignored in A&E was all too real.

My wife’s cancer worsened and, on doctor’s instructions, I wheeled her into A&E, where we queued, without any staff attention, for a long time. Being ignored became unbearable; I eventually fainted, and we were both wheeled into the medical ward. I later learnt that it was a panic attack that turned me from a diligent carer into a helpless patient for over an hour.

Christopher S Holmes
Clitheroe, Lancashire


China’s spy balloon

SIR – The Chinese balloon drifting above America (Leading Article, February 6) has many aggressive precedents.

Tethered balloons were used by the British Army in the First World War for observation. In the Second World War, the Japanese launched 9,300 incendiary balloons, 33ft in diameter with a 300lb payload, across the Pacific, causing the only deaths on mainland America by enemy action.

Beginning in 1942, the British Operation Outward launched 99,000 8ft diameter balloons, with the Women’s Royal Naval Service sending up to 1,000 a day from a golf course in Felixstowe, causing forest fires and damaging electrical equipment in Germany.

All such balloon flights, including those launched by the Chinese, are left to the vagaries of the winds; they cannot be reliably steered.

Roger Croston
Chester


The real Monaco – away from the tourist traps

Star power: a stamp showing Grace Kelly, who became Princess of Monaco in 1956 - alamy
Star power: a stamp showing Grace Kelly, who became Princess of Monaco in 1956 - alamy

SIR – I must take issue with Anthony Peregrine’s description of Monaco (Features, January 20), where I live.

It is not over-policed, it is just that the police are visible and patrol the streets on foot and bike as well as in cars.

Over-packed? It has just 38,600 residents and a further 60,000 people travelling to work daily: a hive of industry. Mr Peregrine should come to the real Monaco and not the tourist traps.

The Monaco mayor sent me a birthday card, as well as a Christmas card to myself and my wife. Civil servants are low key, unobtrusive and effective.

Ken Bates
Monaco


Happy ending

SIR – Congratulations to everyone involved in Happy Valley. At last, a totally believable and compelling series free of explicit sex and woke statements.

Other producers, take note.

Malcolm Allen
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire


SIR – James Norton for James Bond.

Julia Evans
Trewellard, Cornwall


Heathrow’s recovery

SIR – I helped deliver the London 2012 Olympics on time and to budget. When I say John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s outgoing chief executive, is “an extraordinary leader” (Business, February 3), I know what I’m talking about.

We had challenges recovering from Covid – like everyone else in the sector. Two years of constantly changing travel rules and no financial support from the Government put UK aviation in the worst possible place. But under John’s direction, Heathrow grew more than any airport in the world last year, and 94 per cent of passengers cleared security in under 20 minutes (86 per cent in under 10). Only 10 per cent of staff are employed by Heathrow – the rest work for airlines or their ground handlers. That teams are scaled-up to 94 per cent of 2019 levels and ready for the Easter and summer getaways is a phenomenal achievement.

The regulatory process inevitably results in sharp words from some airlines. They are incentivised to say Heathrow is inefficient because each pound they knock off Heathrow’s charge goes directly to their bottom line. But people in the UK know well that hollowing out investment in key infrastructure stores up trouble for the future. We need to invest in Britain’s hub airport to continue delivering a great service for passengers and unlock economic growth. The Civil Aviation Authority may have “allowed” for £3.6 billion of investment, but without a sufficient return for the private investors who will pay for it, that investment won’t happen and passengers will bear the brunt.

Heathrow’s charge has risen by £10, while the average fare airlines charge Heathrow passengers was up by over £156 last year compared with 2019. Heathrow is good value for passengers and airlines, which is why passenger numbers have grown so fast. The airport was one of the worst-performing in the world when John started; now it’s voted in the top 10 by passengers. Airlines have returned to profit and are queueing up to get in.

Most importantly, John has helped shape a credible plan for aviation to decarbonise – protecting the benefits of flying for future generations without the carbon cost.

Lord Deighton (Con)
Chairman, Heathrow Airport
London SW1


Fizz for flowers

SIR – Tulips (Letters, February 6) love lemonade, as do daffodils.

Anne Langley
Wolverhampton


On the French, the English and la politesse

SIR – Like Laura Craik (Features, February 1), I have travelled regularly to Paris for decades. Unlike Ms Craik, however, I have found its citizens to be almost unfailingly friendly and have certainly not experienced more rudeness than in London.

One of her complaints was that a waiter took offence at her ordering in English. How does she think a waiter in Britain would respond to someone ordering in French?

Andrew Marstrand
London SW3


SIR – It’s rare in a city the size of London for strangers to talk at length with each other.

Following several random conversations with fellow passengers on the London travel network, and with other people in shops and in the street, I’ve noticed how much more talkative and friendly Londoners are these days.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a result of Covid lockdowns?

Judy Parsley
London W4


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