Times letters: U-turn that backfired on the prime minister

Sir, I would go further than your excellent editorial’s contention that our prime minister may have lost the benefit of the doubt with the electorate, following his latest and surely most damaging political gaffe. For apolitical voters like me, and I suspect even for diehard Tories, any vestige of respect that Boris Johnson had left has been totally lost. I am in no doubt that it will cost him, and some of his cohorts, dearly.
John Peacock
Northallerton, N Yorks

Sir, A Tory backbencher is reported in your article as saying “MPs did what they were told and have been made to look stupid and corrupt”. Thirteen Tory MPs managed to avoid looking stupid and corrupt by refusing to do as they were ordered. What stopped their fellow Conservatives from doing the same? I expect integrity from my elected representative.
Henrietta Naish
London EC1

Sir, You report that Boris Johnson “is said to be ‘pissed off’ and frustrated with the U-turn” over the overhaul of the standards system. At least now he knows how the rest of us feel about the whole standards affair.
Deborah Rubli
Chichester

Sir, The only people to come out of this affair with any credit are the 13 Conservative MPs who defied the whip and voted against the amendment tabled by Andrea Leadsom. I know little about their policy preferences but I suggest that a cabinet that included these individuals as senior ministers would indicate a return to a government based on high principle and would be a vast improvement upon the incumbents. The country has much to thank them for and should condemn those Tory MPs who voted for the amendment as being on the wrong side of history.
Michael Percy
London SW11

Sir, One aspect of “the cruel world of politics”, the phrase used by Owen Paterson, is the language of “whipping” and of there being a “chief whip”. My blood runs cold at the thought of peasants, slaves and the lowest ranks in colonial times receiving this hideous punishment. I shudder at the thought of Jesus being scourged before his Crucifixion.

Surely such connotations should have no place in the proceedings of a modern democracy.
The Rev Canon Glynn Richerby
Worcester

Sir, Nicholas Allen’s timely quotation from HMS Pinafore (letter, Nov 5) reminded me of the subsequent words of Captain Corcoran: “And though before my fall/ I was captain of you all/ I’m a member of the crew.”

Enough said, perhaps.
Christopher Morcom QC
London SW13

COVID ANTIVIRAL PILL
Sir, As you report (“Britain first to approve antiviral pill for Covid-19”, Nov 5), the antiviral drug molnupiravir is now approved in the UK for Covid patients aged over 60 or at high risk of severe disease. In a clinical trial of unvaccinated patients, 7 per cent of molnupiravir-treated patients were admitted to hospital against 14 per cent given a placebo. However, for patients to benefit, they have to be treated within five days of first developing symptoms. How many British people could get a Covid test, see their GP and start treatment within five days? Most GP surgeries are overwhelmed. Getting Covid test results rapidly is also challenging, especially for the elderly.

Molnupiravir is not effective later in infection: three clinical trials in patients already in hospital have failed and had to be stopped, so there is a very narrow window of time when this drug could help Covid patients. We need new systems to testing and treat patients rapidly, as soon as they develop symptoms.
Dr Andrew Hill
Senior visiting research fellow, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Liverpool

HOSTILITY TO ARTS
Sir, Richard Morrison reports (“This government of Gradgrinds must breathe life back into schools”, Times2, Nov 5) that the government has apparently reneged on its pledge to give schools a ringfenced £270 million to develop arts education. That is a disappointing decision but it does not necessarily mean that arts education does not matter to the Department for Education. Lovers of the arts will be pleased to know that it has still managed to find tens of millions of pounds to give subsidies to eight independent music and dance schools by retaining the “Music and Dance School” scheme. This scheme enables a small number of talented singers and dancers to be educated together at centres of excellence. Whether or not we still have a “levelling up” agenda there can be little doubt that the state school scheme that is “on hold” would have been better value for money and would have had a greater impact on the health of the nation.
Stephen Box
Former head, Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School, Aylesbury, Bucks

AGE OF THE TRAIN
Sir, As Clare Foges says (Comment, Nov 1; letters, Nov 2 & 3), trains are crucial to meeting our net zero targets. Research shows that switching half of domestic leisure journeys to rail would save about 330kg of carbon emissions per person per year. Foges says that “for the most part, Britain’s rail experience does not smack of pride”. At LNER we take immense pride in what we do, not only from our excellent customer service that helps to encourage more people to choose rail, but also from having saved 26.5 million litres of diesel since introducing our world-class Azuma fleet. We have managed this by travelling between Edinburgh and London fully in electric mode.

Foges also says that trains are overcrowded. We have introduced “Seat Sure”, which enables every customer to reserve a seat in seconds, up to five minutes before the train departs, using the LNER mobile app. We have plans for more services that will add thousands more seats between London and Newcastle and improve journey times between Edinburgh and London. We have made it possible to book tickets for LNER services six months in advance: we’ve just put tickets on sale for travel in April, allowing people to plan ahead and secure cheaper fares.
David Horne
Managing director, LNER; York

Sir, I agree that there should be much more emphasis on rail travel. At present, however, it is difficult to go on holiday by train as there is hardly any room for more than two people’s luggage in a carriage and on some trains as few as two pre-booked bicycles can be carried; heaven help anyone who wants to take a surfboard, kayak or set of golf clubs. There is more luggage capacity when one travels by plane. It should be easy for the government to insist, when renewing any franchise, that there has to be a reasonable amount of space for luggage. Perhaps we ought to bring back the luggage van in some form.
Chris Roberts
Kirkby-in-Furness, Cumbria

LECTURERS’ PENSION CUT COULD LEAD TO BRAIN DRAIN
Sir, Many of the members of the University and College Union who voted to strike are scientists and researchers (“Lecturers vote to strike”, News, Nov 5). This involves many years of training in the early stages of their career, often with no pension provision. To compensate, pensions in the later stages of their career have been secure and generous, despite generally low salaries compared with other professions. A 35 per cent reduction in their guaranteed retirement income, which will disproportionately affect younger scientists, is likely to decrease the talent pool in UK universities and reduce our competitiveness.

This cannot be a good outcome for a country that intends to lead in technology and innovation.
Dr Nick Evans
Associate professor in bioengineering, University of Southampton School of Medicine

GENDER-FREE TEES
Sir, I was surprised by the suggestion in your report that gender-neutral golf is a new idea (“Golf club tries gender-neutral tees”, News, Nov 3). Aldeburgh Golf Club (founded as a mixed golf club with equal playing rights and subscriptions in 1884) may or may not be the earliest mixed golf club in the world, but with the first captain having been Skelton Anderson, the husband of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and the brother-in-law of Millicent Fawcett, it is scarcely a surprise that the club is a pioneer of gender-neutral golf. We have four sets of tees rated for both sexes and offer our members a choice of tees in competitions as well as for general play.
David Wybar
Secretary, Aldeburgh Golf Club

STARK WARNING
Sir, The controversy about renaming the Stark effect because of Johannes Stark’s support for Hitler (letter and report, Nov 4) was neatly handled by our quantum mechanics professor at Berkeley in the 1960s: he simply told us that we needed to know it but that he was not going to teach it because Stark was a Nazi. Nor, as we had assumed, did he examine us on it.
Professor Goronwy Tudor Jones

School of Physics and Astronomy, Birmingham University

LICENCE TO THRILL
Sir, The business of writers (whether men or women) adopting each other’s characters leaves me rather cold (“Female author on mission to give Bond novels an update” Nov 5). The great characters are mysterious spirits not entirely created by, but living within, an author’s imagination. The relationship is akin to parent and child, and anyone who tries to replicate it is, however entertaining, merely a ventriloquist.
James Dixon
Stanningfield, Suffolk

HOME STRETCH
Sir, I am intrigued by the letters and your leading article (Nov 4) on plans to encourage older homeowners to downsize. My wife and I have lived in a “small farmhouse” for 53 years and have always taken great pleasure in being able to entertain our growing family. This Christmas, as usual, we intend to accommodate 18 members of our family, including ten grandchildren. Sleeping facilities are becoming more difficult as the grandchildren grow but by occasionally quintupling numbers in bedrooms, we succeed.

Breakfast is chaos.
Dr Bill Pagan
Holton, Suffolk

Sir, In our village when a bungalow comes on the market you can be sure that it will be snapped up quickly and replaced with a five-bedroom house.
Sally Gilbert
East Horsley, Surrey

HEDGING YOUR BITS
Sir, My North Country family always calls our ceiling dryer the “winter hedge” rather than a Sheila Maid (letters, Nov 4 & 5), presumably referring to the practice of draping the washing over the bushes in the garden to dry in the summer months.
Clare Fea
Worcester