Matt Hancock’s hypocrisy shows why politics is so rotten – Yorkshire Post Letters

MATT Hancock is no worse a man than many another in his personal affairs. Where his behaviour became utterly corrupt is the absolute power he wielded over the personal affairs of the rest of us.

The Government was arrogant and authoritarian in imposing untargeted national lockdowns – the Covid emergency was an insufficient excuse to give absolute power to the likes of Mr Hancock, or to anyone else. He is a hypocrite; governments are not infallible; and we are not slaves.

Let us hope the voters of Batley and Spen give the legacy parties – Labour, the Conservatives, and the Lib Dems – a bloody nose.

None of them deserve the seat – each one has drooled at the notion of absolute lockdown social control over us; each one thinks government knows best; each one has contributed to the betrayal of Northern Ireland; each one wants magic money to pay for their incompetence.

The Tories try bribes like HS2; Labour is a shambles; and the Lib Dems wanted to overturn our vote to Leave. None of the above, please.

From: Mike Baldwin, Nether Edge, Sheffield.

EVERYONE knew Matt Hancock had to go: that is everyone apart from Boris Johnson. But on this, he has form, hasn’t he?

He wouldn’t sack Dominic Cummings, though the whole country was outraged. He wouldn’t sack Robert Jenrick when he granted a developer planning permission, saving him millions, a decision he had to later rescind as it was unlawful.

He wouldn’t sack Gavin Williamson after the exams fiasco. He wouldn’t sack Priti Patel when she was proved to have breached the ministerial code by bullying civil servants.

He has presided over a government mired in sleaze: lucrative contracts given to friends; pork barrel politics of so-called “levelling up” funds involving Jenrick, Rishi Sunak and other ministers.

The Ted Hastings quote “When did we stop caring about honesty and integrity?” has never been more relevant.

From: Canon Michael Storey, Healey Wood Road, Brighouse.

WHEN the Bishop of St Davids stated recently “Never, never, never trust a Tory”, I thought she might have been a bit “over the top”. Perhaps not.

Sadly, I have had doubts about the trustworthiness of the “Tory toffs” for some time, Matt Hancock included. He so often comes over full of himself, starting policy statements with “I” rather than “The Government”.

From: Phyllis Capstick, Hellifield.

LIARS and cheats are in charge of this country – and probably always have been. They treat anyone who isn’t a crony with utter contempt.

If they are incapable of following their own laws and rules, those same laws and rules must be regarded as insignificant when applied to the rest of society.

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