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Theresa May has done another naughty thing with the DUP | Letters

Jerry Lee Lewis.
Jerry Lee Lewis got right about the money tree: A Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On. Photograph: Fotos International/Getty Images

Readers may be surprised at Sinn Féin’s “mixed response” to the DUP arrangement with the government (Report, 27 June). After all, we have been told that if the DUP-Conservative deal went ahead London could not act as honest broker under the Belfast agreement. Former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain even suggested the peace process would be damaged. Sinn Féin’s more phlegmatic response may reflect their own ambition to join a coalition government in the Republic following elections possibly as soon as this year. The Belfast agreement requires the Republic to act as co-guarantor. Sinn Féin ministers in a Dublin administration would thus have to act as honest broker between themselves and their DUP opponents in Belfast.
John Draper
London

• If no agreement is reached on Stormont power-sharing by Thursday’s deadline, we could see the unusual spectacle of Northern Ireland being governed from Westminster, while the DUP runs the rest of Britain.
Martin Freedman
London

• You report that Theresa May’s deal with the DUP will cost £1bn. But surely its real cost is much more than this? The Conservative manifesto proposed ending the triple lock on pensions and the winter fuel allowance, both of which are now to be retained. How much money would these have saved if they had kept to their manifesto commitments? Whatever that figure is needs to be added to the £1bn to give the full cost of this shabby deal.
John Boaler
Calne, Wiltshire

• Why should the taxpayers of the UK have to fork out £1bn to rescue the Tory party from the consequences of its own ineptitude? The bill for the bribe to the DUP should be sent to Conservative central office.
Roy Boffy
Sutton Coldfield

• What is the difference between a Banksy print and £1.5bn?
Sheila Edmunds
Altrincham, Cheshire

• A hung parliament delivers a bung government.
Malcolm Watts
Henley-on-Thames

• Amber Rudd was wrong about the money tree. Jerry Lee Lewis got it right. There’s a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on.
David Beake
Budock Water. Cornwall

• Surely now the naughtiest thing Theresa May has done is to bribe 10 MPs for their votes.
Nigel Smith
Bognor Regis, West Sussex

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