Letters: It’s too late for Boris

Disastrous decisions

Sir: In his otherwise excellent analysis of Boris Johnson’s premiership (‘The missing leader’, 19 September), Fraser Nelson suggests that he could still succeed. It’s too late. Although we ‘know that he’s not responsible for the pandemic’, he is responsible for the government’s response to it. The consequences of that hysterical response, seemingly contrived by a small, mostly unelected cabal, have been, and will be, disastrous for huge numbers of people; the enormity of the failures too great to be set against subsequent successes.

Boris persuaded us to support him with a carefully crafted image of a jovial positive thinker, a libertarian and man of the people. He’s been found out. He should prove that he can at least keep his Brexit promises over the next few months, then make way for a courageous Conservative who trusts the people and eschews ruling by fiat.

Tim Coles
Carlton, Bedfordshire

Where’s the old Boris?

Sir: Fraser Nelson’s article on the ‘missing’ Prime Minister reflects what many worried voters are thinking. We always knew Boris was not a details man, but expected there would be a competent cabinet behind him to enact policy, in the mould of the Reagan administration in the USA. This has proven not to be the case. As for Boris himself, I suspect his personal brush with Covid-19 was more serious than originally thought, and made him more cautious of the pandemic. Certainly he wants to be liked, and his penchant for agreeing with the last person he spoke to accords with John Major bearing the imprint of the last person who sat on him. His constant flip-flopping suggests poor advice from the ‘experts’. What we desperately need is the old Boris with his vision and ebullience to drag the country out of its confusion and lethargy.

Cromwell maligned

Sir: James Forsyth expresses a common misconception when he invokes Oliver Cromwell as a previous leader who cancelled Christmas (‘An autumn of discontent’, 19 September).