The Spectator

Letters: Where past PMs went wrong

issue 05 November 2022

Catalogue of disasters

Sir: Matthew Parris, in his article ‘The real cause of all the chaos’ (29 October), asks of our last three prime ministers: ‘What big thing did any of these unfortunate souls do wrong?’ In a spirit of helpfulness:

Mrs May: net zero by 2050, derisory defence spending.

Mr Johnson: hospital clearances, lockdown, vaccine mandates, derisory defence spending.

Ms Truss: tax cuts without public sector spending cuts.

As a consequence of these three, Britain is not so far away from having to go cap in hand to the IMF once more, and is again confronted by war in Europe as a result of the failure of conventional deterrence.

Tim Bidie

Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Poisoned Cup

Sir: Rod Liddle’s scathing commentary on Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup, ‘Playing at morality’ (29 October), overlooks the benefits of awarding such an event to regimes with which we are in fundamental disagreement.

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