Jonathan Freedland is absolutely correct; we must not forget “those who for the sake of their career or a pet dogma, were prepared to wreck everything” (Let the vandals know – we won’t forget what they did, 2 July). Johnson and Gove deserve all the criticism coming to them for the Brexit vote, but the list of those, in recent years in this country, whose “appetite for status” led them to take the path “to disaster” does not stop with those treacherous Tories. Blair and the Iraq war is obvious, but what about Osborne’s unnecessary austerity to balance the books, while at the same time reducing the rich’s taxes, and selling off the country’s assets at knockdown prices to friends in the City? Few will be persuaded that his quest to reach the “top of the greasy pole” has not been determining his policies for the last six years.
Wasn’t “vanity and ambition” behind Clegg’s duplicitous decision, against the wishes of the majority of Lib Dem voters, to agree to five years of Tory-led coalition? Isn’t that same ambition at the crux of many Labour MPs’ willingness to rid their party of a leader hell-bent on reducing inequality and unfairness, and putting principles first. Most politicians, it would appear, ply their trade for a variety of reasons, mostly selfish ones, which explains the popularity of those such as Corbyn and Jo Cox, who break the mould.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool
• While Jonathan Freedland rightly directs our anger at the Brexit campaigners, we should not ignore the bigger picture. Yes, blame Cameron for his culpability in calling a referendum and Johnson, Gove et al for their deceitful and successful campaign. But the promise of a referendum was official Tory policy. It was in their manifesto at the 2010 election and the whole party signed up for it. In our understandable desire to blame individuals we should not be deflected from the fact that it is the whole Conservative party who have led us to this disastrous result. We now have the terrifying prospect of leaving it to those same Conservatives to deliver us from the mess that is wholly of their making.
David Carter
Allendale, Northumberland
• Your correspondent Peter Cave asks “What’s to be done with Boris?” (Letters, 2 July). Remove him from the House of Commons; revoke his citizenship; deport him to either his birthplace (USA) or the land of his fathers (Turkey). This may not do much to solve the Brexit catastrophe but would at least offer some retributive justice and give the rest of us a badly needed laugh.
John Starbuck
Huddersfield
