I voted Conservative but this is now the worst government – Yorkshire Post Letters

I VOTED for Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party because I was in despair at the state of our politics after years of austerity, a Brexit referendum and a deadlocked Parliament.

Flamboyant, fun-loving buffoon Boris Johnson seemed the right candidate at the right time, as the Opposition leaders and parties were both unelectable.

I have given Johnson and his government the benefit of the doubt over a pandemic they were not responsible for. But he hides behind doom-mongering scientists so he can’t be blamed for decisions – we remember Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London predicting that 500,000 lives would be lost. Unelected Dominic Cummings also needs to go.

However, I have come to the conclusion that Boris Johnson is not the leader for this serious crisis or the Cabinet. He seems overwhelmed. How could it be that this once great country had no secret preparations for a “what if” scenario?

Johnson is incapable of any organisational skills to see us through – it must be the worst government in living memory (I’m in my 70s). Its communication skills are abysmal.

Unbelievably, it ignored the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for months and failed to put forward any minister to appear on ITV’s Good Morning Britain for over 150 days to be scrutinised.

Parliament must hold the Government to account and stop the draconian restrictions and fines. The saving lives strategy, and worry over the NHS being overwhelmed at the beginning, was acceptable with a lockdown that has seriously affected us all.

My wife was frightened to death and had one 10-minute walk in five months. Talk is now of a vaccine taking up to two years so it should be a priority to live with this damned virus.

We must save jobs and companies. The NHS is a servant of the people, and not the other way round, and a second national lockdown is out of the question. All those under 50 should get on with living – we must be individually responsible for our safe actions with distancing, hands and masks.

In a year’s time coronavirus will, hopefully, be a thing of the past but the death toll could, sadly, be high – and we have to accept this.

If this Government has decimated our viable businesses and left millions with no jobs or prospects for 20 years, it will never be forgiven and will spell the end of the Conservative Party.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson