Boris Johnson guilty of abusing rule of law – Yorkshire Post Letters

I AM increasingly saddened and annoyed at the ways in which the Prime Minister abuses his position to the detriment of the rules of law and fairness.

I can think of four examples:

n Not sacking Dominic Cummings when he breached Government guidelines during the first lockdown;

n Persuading the House of Commons to break the international agreement regarding the Good Friday Agreement;

n Not sacking Priti Patel as Home Secretary when she had breached Government guidelines;

n Considering reducing foreign aid from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of GDP.

In the “good old days” the United Kingdom was seen as being the country which set the standards for others to follow. Under Boris Johnson, those days are becoming fewer and fewer.

From: Terence Hammond, Sandal, Wakefield.

“LESSONS have been learned” is the usual platitude offered these days for “We’ve heard what you’re saying but we couldn’t care a stuff”.

As in the case of Boris Johnson’s response to the independent inquiry of Priti Patel’s bullying of staff at the Home Office. As with the majority of Mr Johnson’s Cabinet, this is another classic example of personnel being promoted above their capabilities.

Shouting and swearing, and demeaning staff, exposes the inability of the one doing it to their own inadequacy to handle any given situation. Nobody is naive enough to think that reform is not needed in the Civil Service, but this is not the way to go about it. As with Mr Johnson refusing to rid Dominic Cummings when he should have done, this is just another nail in his coffin.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

IT strikes me that the standards being upheld by 10 Downing Street relies too much on how valuable you are to Boris Johnson rather than the usual standards.

Dominic Cummings flouted the rules on his trip to Durham and Barnard Castle and was safe in his job until he left. Now Priti Patel is found guilty of bullying and is allowed to remain in post. Double standards indeed.

From: Brenda Ashton, Chair, Liverpool for Europe.

THE past month marked 50 days since The Yorkshire Post was the first to report that the Conservative Party was planning to open a head office next year in Leeds.

Since then, we have heard nothing. Although frequent U-turns are a feature of this administration, I hope recent Downing Street personnel changes and Boris Johnson’s declining fortunes will not mean his creating fresh disappointment by abandoning his party’s Leeds office proposals.

Liverpool for Europe is among many pro-EU groups outside of Yorkshire wanting to join the county’s own groups in using such a building as a North of England focal point for protests at the forthcoming Brexit débacle in 2021. Deal or not, there will be much to campaign for – and against, in the new year.

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