How the Government destroyed traditional, respectable Conservatism - Yorkshire Post Letters

Several ministers and witnesses have testified to the Covid Inquiry that diverting so many human resources and civil servants to a hard Brexit exacerbated the Johnson government’s chaotic mishandling of the Covid Pandemic in 2020.

It is unclear why Nicola Sturgeon’s similar suggestion should be so condescendingly silenced by a Senior Counsel at the Scottish Inquiry.

Do the orders from above to avoid the word ‘Brexit’ arise from the knowledge that ‘Get Brexit Done’ has produced disaster after disaster? The revised slogan ‘Make Brexit Work’ underlines Nigel Farage’s point that it has failed.

Even its greatest selling point, ‘Take Back Control’, has produced higher levels of immigration, and bred Home Office ministers whose fanaticism is out of control.

Government obsession with a hard Brexit has led to chaos in almost every aspect of British life.

The health service is falling apart because the government won’t listen to experts, just as they didn’t during the pandemic. Teachers and nurses are leaving in droves. The plans which Steve Barclay, the Health Minister, was forced to publicise a few days ago are big on promises, but short on decent rates of pay.

The real needs of our economy as understood by the City and business leaders have been ignored. Instead we have a burgeoning cost of living and mortgage crises.

The stubborn, unrealistic ideological demands of wealthy elitist ministers are driving out the dedicated, skilled practitioners we need in medicine and education.

Failure to control utility companies for the benefit of our citizens has produced a degraded Conservative party which legalises even greater releases of raw sewage than ever before. And now we have Thames Water and other water authorities in dire financial straits – almost inevitably, this irresponsible government will foist on us a ‘solution’ that we taxpayers will fund. Having legitimised raw sewage in our tourist locations, the government undermines ‘staycations’ and our tourist industry.

Energy companies have unilaterally hiked their prices to consumers whilst continuing to make excessive profits and bonuses. Lenders have raised mortgage payments but not payments to savers.

And what about the government itself? The House of Lords is bloated with many people whose only qualification is a donation to the Tory party.

The Chamber of the House of Commons, however, is mostly empty because the government has run out of ideas and courage.

Conservative HQ has provided money for Tory MPs not to govern, but to campaign in their now endangered constituencies. Brexit has even failed the government’s own MPs.

Underlying all this mismanagement is a slovenly cohort interested only in its own financial gain.

Long before Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brexit was primarily a ploy for the already wealthy to avoid reasonable taxation, and to create slaves in our public services. It was based on sheer ignorance of how everyday citizens trade and work in the real world.

The government is terrified of allowing or hearing the word ‘Brexit’ - the dream propaganda slogan they were elected on – it represents shambolic failure and the destruction of traditional, respectable Conservatism.