When giving television interviews from his office, Grant Shapps, secretary of state for transport, is invariably seen with a ministerial red box prominently displayed behind him (Rail strikes: anger as UK government refuses to join last-ditch talks, 20 June). When he was interviewed by Sophy Ridge on Sky News last Sunday, there were two red boxes strategically on display plus – “discreetly”, in a bookshelf – what seemed to be part of a small poster with “GRANT SHAPPS” in bold print, which just happened to be there for the TV cameras to catch.
It is, of course, completely unnecessary to have these items on view and so placed. It is not up to me to analyse his reasons for having them there. Some may think it is to compensate for a sense of inferiority. I am not one of them. After all, he did gain five O-levels, as a source close to him pointed out to the Observer in 2012 amid a controversy over Shapps deleting information from his Wikipedia biography, including the apparently incorrect claim that he had “obtained four O-levels including an A in CDT”. Nevertheless, such a display will strike many as tasteless, vulgar and ostentatious – perhaps all best expressed in the Yiddish word shprawnsy.
Sam Monteve Levy
London
• In June 2022, the secretary of state for transport, Grant Shapps, has refused to intervene to avoid a crippling rail strike. In October 1907, with a national rail strike imminent, the president of the board of trade, Lloyd George, intervened and his “geniality, finesse and a certain bold art” ensured success. He was invited to Windsor to be congratulated by the king and queen, as well as by the German emperor, who was there on a visit. Sadly, we have no one of that stature now.
Rufus Adams
Rhyl, Denbighshire
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