Peter Hitchens: I invented the ‘left-wing face’

Sitting ducks

Sir: James Heale is right to highlight the important question about Rishi Sunak’s replacement (‘Who will lead the Tories?, 13 July). A weak leader will be a sitting duck for Nigel Farage to target, resulting in a worsening split on the right and an open goal for Labour to exploit at the next general election. They need a bold, principled and pragmatic leader who is prepared for fierce resistance by Reform UK. All the proposed candidates are great at preaching to their own respective choirs, but are any of them prepared to bravely fight for their beliefs like a Margaret Thatcher? They need to reinvent themselves, akin to in 1975, when Thatcher took the necessary steps to change the Conservative party, providing an alternative to the normalised managed decline. With the continuing rise of Reform UK, this leadership race is vital. I fear they will be found lacking.

Henry Bateson

Whittingham, Northumberland

Health check

Sir: Katy Balls opines that Wes Streeting will not privatise the NHS (‘Keir royale’, 13 July). That much is obvious. What is puzzling however is how much time is spent rewiring a broken system. Why not just determine the best working health model in the free world and replicate it in the UK?

If Mr Streeting had spent longer in the private sector, he would perhaps be familiar with some standard management strictures such as ‘Follow best practice’ and ‘Don’t reinvent the wheel’.

David Soskin, former special adviser to the prime minister, Downing Street Policy Unit

Petworth, West Sussex

Loan voice

Sir: Laura Gascoigne (Arts, 13 July) is right to praise Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery for their terrific Turner exhibition built around the loan of ‘The Fighting Temeraire’, one of 12 masterpiece loans marking the National Gallery’s bicentenary. It’s not quite correct, however, to suggest that the Laing is the only museum to capitalise fully on its loan.