Readers' letters: Conservatives are the weakest link

As the Tory equivalent of ‘The Weakest Link’ rumbles on, leaving just two in the running, it throws up obvious concerns as to how the next leader of the Conservative Party and thereby Prime Minister of the UK is elected.

A narrow electorate of under 200,000, largely male, older, white and based in the south of England will now select the next UK Prime Minister. Hardly representative of society or indeed even of the average Tory voter.

Interestingly, this could see an interesting constitutional situation whereby the runner-up among MPs becomes Conservative leader and thereby PM due to the votes of a tiny electorate. We would thereby have an individual who had risen to the heady heights without even having the support of the majority of Tory MPs.

In the absence of a general election, to fail to secure the majority support of MPs from your own party as you enter Number 10 is a deeply challenging situation to be in from the off.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh.

The Tory party is a one-trick pony

The internecine Tory leadership fight to decide the next captain of the UK Titanic is a depressing spectacle.

The sole issue the preening candidates discuss ad nauseum is tax cuts that favour the wealthy, as though the long-discredited trickle-down economics championed by Reagan/Thatcher will cure the UK’s terminal ills.

The Tory party is a one-trick pony whose only trick was to make the middle class disappear.

Tax cuts won’t stop exports from tanking because of a hard Brexit. They won’t halt inflation, fuelled by food and energy prices that are caused by corporate profiteering.

They won’t reduce the obscene levels of inequality. They won’t create the investment needed to transition away from fossil fuels to renewables and keep our planet from burning.

They won’t stop the rapid decline in productivity. They won’t help people pay their mortgages or rocketing energy bills.

And the Bank of England’s interest rate hikes are not targeting the root causes of inflation but merely compounding the misery of millions.

The sad truth is that Labour won’t be an improve-ment as it endorses many of the same failing policies.

Scotland knows this. Not only has it not voted Tory since 1955 but it also has just one Labour MP. Time for us to go.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh.

Alok Sharma might as well resign now

The COP26 president and Cabinet minister Alok Sharma has threatened to resign if the next prime minister is not committed to net zero.

The cost of net zero by 2050 will cost the UK public £3 trillion. There are 67 million people in the UK so net zero will cost each man, woman and child £45,000 or alternatively since there are 27.8 million households each household will have to contribute £108,000

Do politicians never do their sums? All this horrendous net zero cost and impoverishment for what? The UK has a minuscule 1.13 per cent of global emissions but the rest of the world have already abandoned their COP26 promises as they burn coal to keep the lights on.

China will buy gas from Russia for the next 30 years and Russia will supply India with 40 million tonnes of coal and China with 100 million tonnes.

China and India are responsible for 37 per cent of global emissions so Mr Alok Sharma does that look like a firm COP26 commitment to you? Your resignation will be very welcome.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow.

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