Letters: The Tories have only themselves to blame for the rise of Reform UK
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SIR – Lee Anderson, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, has warned Reform UK, formerly the Brexit Party, that it could allow Labour to win power by standing candidates against the Tories (report, January 3).
Mr Anderson knows that the Conservatives only won an 80-seat majority in 2019 because Nigel Farage stood down Brexit Party candidates. That majority was then completely wasted. Perhaps it should now be the Tories who stand down their candidates to make way for Reform.
David Miller
Chigwell, Essex
SIR – I’m sick of Tory MPs whingeing that supporting Nigel Farage and Reform UK will help Labour. The majority supported the Tories in the last election as they promised Brexit. The referendum was nearly eight years ago. What have they done with it?
Thanks to Boris Johnson, they broke their promise and achieved nothing. As a now-redundant Tory activist and member, I don’t trust anyone in the top echelons of the party. Why should anyone else?
I’ll be voting for Reform UK so there can be a clear-out in the Tory ranks.
M P Wiedman
Piccotts End, Hertfordshire
SIR – It is true that Conservative voters have been treated with contempt by an arrogant Tory elite, but if we punish them, we will punish ourselves. Government policy has drifted Leftwards, and a Labour government would accelerate that movement.
One of the perceived advantages of Brexit was enshrining our democratic right to sack politicians who did not fulfil their promises. Perhaps in this instance, we would be better off insisting that they go back and complete the job we gave them five years ago.
Alan Rogers
Epsom, Surrey
SIR – In the March Budget, to regain the support of past Conservative voters like me, the party should put distance between itself and both Labour and Reform UK by abolishing the hated, unjust inheritance tax.
Even Reform UK is pledging only to reduce the tax rather than ditch it. My wife and I will probably not leave enough to pay this tax, but I’d vote to spare my bereaved heirs the burden of proving this to HMRC and the Probate Office.
Administrative costs would be saved, with the further advantage of reducing probate delays. Just do it – along with upping tax thresholds as a lesser priority.
Colin Newman
Bingley, West Yorkshire
SIR – To me it seems obvious why Tory and Labour politicians do not declare their policies (Letters, January 3). The electorate would soon see that there is no difference between them.
Martin Gaskill
Culcheth, Cheshire
NHS overhaul
SIR – The record excess deaths last year (report, January 2) have been attributed to various industrial actions. These will have been a factor – but a relatively minor one.
A continuing major cause is lack of access to experienced doctors in and out of hours. A 111 call handler or paramedic in a car is no substitute.
The fact that so many are crammed into an A&E waiting room for many hours in close proximity to very ill – and some infectious – patients is a national disgrace. Add to all this waiting times for investigations, specialist referrals and surgery.
Yet more funding will have limited value. A radically different system is needed now. We must incentivise our home-trained doctors to stay in the country, looking beyond mere pay. Doctors and hospitals should have to compete to offer good and timely service to patients.
We need a bold government first.
Dr Nigel Garbutt
Minsterworth, Gloucestershire
Turkey’s allegiance
SIR – Turkey shows its true colours by refusing to allow former Royal Navy minehunters, donated to Ukraine, to pass through Turkish waters and into the Black Sea (report, January 3).
Given that it is a Nato member, Turkey’s track record of favouring Russia rather than Ukraine is extremely worrying. This is exemplified by its obstructive approach to Finland’s and Sweden’s membership of Nato, coupled with its less than enthusiastic backing of EU and American sanctions on Russia.
Perhaps it is time for British tourists to reconsider whether they wish to continue to support such a regime by choosing to holiday in Turkey.
Dr Jonathan Edwards
Ringwood, Hampshire
The threat to democracies from AI chatbots
SIR – Jonathan Hall KC is right that urgent legal changes are needed to counter the rise of radicalising AI chatbots (Commentary, January 2).
Just before Christmas, I sat next to a Microsoft AI specialist on a plane. His description of the pace of development in AI capabilities (10-fold performance improvements in a few months) left me in no doubt that chatbots will have a malign influence on elections globally in the coming year – leaving ordinary people uncertain what the facts are about every single political issue.
We underestimate the risk at our peril. Politicians must tackle this problem with legislation immediately.
Keith Phair
Felixstowe, Suffolk
SIR – Your report (December 27) claims that ChatGPT will be able to make a restaurant reservation. Surely by the time you have given it full instructions, you could have made the call yourself – or, even quicker, booked online.
David Sharrad
Whepstead, Suffolk
Caring for the dying
SIR – In recent days there has been much discussion about assisted dying, following Dame Esther Rantzen’s moving account of her own situation (report, December 19). One of the difficulties in these discussions is that it is impossible to know how one will feel when the time comes.
During 40 years in hospice medicine, I’ve learnt that life is precious and needs to be valued. In the vast majority of cases symptoms can eventually be controlled. Quality of life may not include being out and about on the golf course; instead, intimate moments with family and friends take on new meaning. Many patients who had thought life was no longer worth living came to find great solace in such times, often including an element of reconciliation, and were grateful that they had had those extra days (which often became weeks or even months).
Another factor is the trust that is built up between those professionals caring for the dying. That will be rapidly eroded if the same physician is responsible for the terminal injection.It would be foolhardy to base the momentous decision of assisted dying on a popular vote (Letters, January 2) based on the impressions of a healthy population with no experience of caring for the dying. Good palliative care is the answer.
Janet Squire FRCP
Rushton, Northamptonshire
RNLI’s ethics
SIR – I, for one, am highly impressed by the ethics shown by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in turning down donations from a fox hunt in Ireland (Letters, January 1).
Unlike some, I actually care where the donations come from, and would boycott a charity that gains donations from disgraceful funding, such as by blood sport, just as I would not buy from brands that support modern slavery or exploitation.
Such barbaric practices belong in the past, and the RNLI will gain more support from me for its moral attitude. Other charities should follow its lead.
Mandi Martin
Ryde, Isle of Wight
SIR – The RNLI is refusing donations from organisations because it does not approve of their aims. Surely by taking such a stance the charity is putting crews at risk of not having the best kit available. Who makes these decisions? Presumably not the volunteers.
Hilary Reed
Ashstead, Surrey
Sneaky service charges are becoming the norm
SIR – My wife and I enjoyed a New Year’s Eve black-tie dinner and an overnight stay at a local hotel on Sunday. Having agreed a rate for the event some months before, we found ourselves having to negotiate the price back down to this amount – while attempting to check out in a busy reception – through the removal of several service charges that the hotel had applied.
I’ll happily give a gratuity for excellent service on an opt-in basis, but begrudge the current blanket inclusion for every exchange. For example, a service charge was applied to a bar bill for two drinks consumed at the bar. Earlier, we had ordered an £11.50 sandwich on room service and were presented with a bill for £21.38. The “extras” were a tray charge of £7.50 and then a 12.5 per cent service charge.
I have also noticed a donation to the hotel’s favourite charity added to a recent bill, which will no doubt become another favoured method for extracting more cash.
In all cases the additional charges were removed without quibble, but that’s not the point. A gratuity should be my choice, not based on a hotel’s presumption of its levels of service.
Steve Burgen
Thatcham, Berkshire
Fancy meeting you
SIR – Regarding unexpected meetings abroad (Letters, January 3), one evening in 1999, while driving my Land Rover from London to Cape Town, I found myself sitting next to my old chemistry teacher in a bar in rural Kenya.
A year or so later, when back in the UK and driving a mini-cab in Essex to try to pay off all the debt I had incurred on the expedition, I realised that the two passengers I had picked up were a pair of Nottingham lads I’d met in a backpacker lodge in Zimbabwe.
Chris Ash
Cunningsburgh, Shetland
Everything must go
SIR – Reading about the student who lost her artwork to a charity shop (report, January 2) reminded me of the time we were moving house and I did a last-minute car boot sale.
On returning home with the unsold items I was informed that my father was gravely ill. As I left the house my parting words to my husband were: “Take it all to the charity shop.” I had forgotten that I’d also packed all my sweaters in black bags in the back of my husband’s car in preparation for the move. On my return I wondered where all my clothes were. I rushed to the shop where the staff said the items had sold well and thanked me for my generous donation.
Shelagh Parry
Farnham, Surrey
Point of honour
SIR – I had a long career in law and at the conclusion was awarded an MBE (Letters, January 2). To my mind it was for Many Blunders Excused, but clearly somebody was impressed.
David Redston
Horsham, West Sussex
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