Letters | 13 June 2019

The benefits of indecision

Sir: Belgium has often been without a government for months on end without suffering any economic collapse. In Britain in recent decades governments with large majorities and led by ideologically driven prime ministers have made disastrous decisions on welfare reform, foreign policy and selling off social housing. Isabel Hardman is correct to say that ‘decisions are needed to solve problems that have festered for years’ (‘The in-tray of horrors’, 8 June). However her analysis should also consider the benefits of government paralysis: the damage that has been avoided because superficial and ill-thought-out policies never saw the light of day.
Ivor Morgan

Lincoln

A doctor writes

Sir: In his interview with Katy Balls (‘Operation Hunt’, 8 June), Jeremy Hunt claimed he had faced down the junior doctors in a strike which ‘lasted almost as long as the miners’ strike’. That is untrue. The miners’ strike lasted 363 days. The junior doctors’ four strikes lasted for 24-48 hours each and only the last one included withdrawal of emergency care.

In fact, the doctors’ strike was based on Hunt’s false premise that junior-doctor rostering was responsible for 11,000 unnecessary weekend deaths — an allegation subsequently proven to be untrue. That damaging allegation alienated a generation of junior doctors.

This is proved by the fact that in 2012 when Hunt was appointed Secretary of State for Health, 67 per cent of junior doctors completing compulsory foundation training progressed to speciality training. By 2018, that figure had fallen to 38 per cent. Is this one good reason why Mr Hunt should not be our next prime minister?
Meirion Thomas

London SW3

Emotional rescue

Sir: Cressida Connolly’s article on dementia is brave in many ways, and the issues it raises will chime with many (‘The upsides of dementia’, 1 June).There is no sugar-coating dementia as it advances.