Letters: Lessons the Conservatives must learn from Lee Anderson’s defection
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SIR – In response to a question about Lee Anderson’s defection from the Conservatives to Reform UK, James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, came out with the old cliché – that a vote for Reform is a vote for Labour.
Do these people who are supposedly running the country not realise that it is because of their incompetence that Reform even exists?
The Tories failed to keep their 2019 manifesto pledges. When Rishi Sunak became the unelected Prime Minister, these were followed by yet more empty promises.
The Government has already handed power to Labour – and taken the public for granted for too long.
Andrew Ash
Market Harborough, Leicestershire
SIR – I’m unaware of any award for ironic political statement of the year, but if one exists then we already have a clear winner: the Conservative Party spokesman who, commenting on Lee Anderson’s defection, claimed that “voting for Reform can’t deliver anything apart from a Keir Starmer-led Labour government that would take us back to square one – which means higher taxes, higher energy costs, no action on Channel crossings, and uncontrolled immigration”.
I’m sure many voters had a wry chuckle over that claim.
Richard Scott
Kirkbride, Cumbria
SIR – The defection of Lee Anderson to Reform UK is no loss to the Conservative Party.
Politicians who cannot engage their brains before opening their mouths are always going to be a major political liability at some point, and Mr Anderson has been an all too obvious example.
Kim Potter
Lambourn, Berkshire
SIR – The Conservatives’ loss is Reform’s gain. However, I’m not convinced that Rishi Sunak understands what his party has lost or why Reform has gained.
Andy Bebbington
Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire
SIR – There is no political party more adept at self-harm than the Conservatives, and Lee Anderson’s defection sums it all up.
The Tories are in government but not in control. I despair.
Jonathan W A Hall
Oaksey, Wiltshire
SIR – On the basis that people generally vote for a party rather than a candidate, MPs should not be able change their party, as this shows gross contempt for those who elected them.
If Lee Anderson wishes to change party then he should resign and stand again for election under the Reform UK banner, or wait for the forthcoming general election.
Chris Barmby
Tonbridge, Kent
Balfour’s portrait
SIR – As Arthur Balfour’s nearest descendant, I was scandalised by the wanton vandalism of his portrait at Trinity College, Cambridge (“Pro-Palestinian protester slashes portrait of Jewish homeland architect Lord Balfour”, report, March 9).
Two other factors have shocked me almost more. The first is the plain ignorance of the history of the Middle East among these extremists.
Secondly, the college said it was offering support to anyone affected – but shouldn’t the priority be to leave no stone unturned to find the perpetrators, who in cowardly fashion execute these acts and post them anonymously on social media?
In recent weeks many of your journalists have demanded that the authorities and leaders of institutions have a change of approach. Instead, they remain supine and woke. Like fish, the body politic rots from the head down. Who will rescue us?
The Earl of Balfour
London SW3
SIR – The Metropolitan Police say that a courageous counter-protester in London was not arrested because of the message on his banner – “Hamas is terrorist” – but for his own safety (report, March 10).
The truth is that he was at risk because of the message. That shows who controls our streets these days – namely those who are potentially violent, do not respect the right of others to speak freely, and in some cases support the proscribed terrorist organisation that engaged in the savagery of October 7. Although he has since been de-arrested, the counter-protester was manhandled by officers, thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Rather than pursuing those who exercise their right to oppose the protesters’ narrative, why don’t the police deal with those who are a threat to that freedom?
Derrick Gillingham
London SW1
Faithful friends
SIR – Of course dogs should be welcome in church, as Christopher Howse declares (Sacred Mysteries, March 9). We were much disappointed on holiday in Wales recently when our black labrador, Pilot, was not allowed into St David’s Cathedral. A 13-year-old retired gundog with impeccable manners and an enthusiastic greeting for everyone (well, they might have a biscuit in a pocket), he often accompanies us to services at St Mary’s, Buscot, in Oxfordshire, where his presence is applauded.
Only once has he merited a frown, albeit with a measure of amusement. He snored during the sermon.
Ian Morton
Highworth, Wiltshire
SIR – Cats, too, may have long been welcomed in churches. Exeter Cathedral has a door with a hole (below) that was cut in the 16th century to encourage mousing cats to enter. In the 19th century, Robert Hawker, vicar of Morwenstow, Cornwall, took his nine cats to his own services, though he reputedly excommunicated one for mousing on the Sabbath.
Peter Saunders
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Royal family photos
SIR – How the Princess of Wales edits photographs of herself and her family is entirely up to her.
I’m an angler and quite often take photos of fish I’ve caught; if I knew how to Photoshop, crop or alter parts of the images, I probably would.
Max Coventry
Compton Abdale, Gloucestershire
SIR – Talk about mountains and molehills. What is the fuss about?
Philip Everall
Crewe, Cheshire
Net zero in perspective
SIR – I agree with the sentiments in Annabel Denham’s article (“We must scrap net zero before it’s too late”, Comment, March 11).
I have been in India for three weeks and have seen first-hand a country that is closer, in terms of its pollution, to the Industrial Revolution than the 21st century.
Emissions from Britain have halved since 1990, but they continue to grow at an increasing rate elsewhere in the world. Achieving net zero in this country will make no difference to the bigger picture and will come at significant cost to us all. We would be better off helping other countries to make reductions in their emissions.
Roger Gentry
Weavering, Kent
Mouthfuls of mustard
SIR – My husband is crazy about mustard (Letters, March 11) – he even licks the spoon after he has helped himself to an enormous portion.
Robyn Maitland
Sherborne, Dorset
SIR – While I was on leave at my parental home a few years ago, my mother prepared me a steak dinner.
My query as to whether she had any mustard led to much rummaging in the larder before a tube of Colman’s was produced.
When I examined it I saw that the price label said 1s/6d. I suppose it might still have been all right.
Lt Cdr Geoffrey Carr RN (retd)
Melksham, Wiltshire
SIR – I suffered from a “weak chest” as a child and my grandmother prescribed a Colman’s mustard poultice. Apparently when my uncle had TB the local remedy of inhaling tar fumes hadn’t worked, so it was hoped this one would be better.
Fred Deeks
Waterlooville, Hampshire
The folly of disowning two great sons of Devon
SIR – The headteacher of Exeter School, Louise Simpson, appears to find that Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh no longer represent the school’s “values and inclusive nature”, and are thus unworthy to have houses named after them (report, March 5). She proposes woodlands or topographical features as substitutes. Wistlandpound comes to mind.
I do wonder if the headteacher has done her homework when she says that Raleigh doesn’t fit the school’s values. Not only was he a competent sailor, but he also wrote good poetry. And he died well. On feeling the axe at his execution, he is said to have remarked: “’Tis a sharp remedy, but a sure one for all ills.”
Drake, apart from seeing off the Spaniards, was instrumental in giving Plymouth a water supply. A poet and a plumber seem pretty inclusive to me.
Rohaise Thomas-Everard
Dulverton, Somerset
SIR – I attended Exeter School between 1969 and 1974, and was a member of Raleigh House.
Renaming it after, say, Captain Pugwash would not have made it any pleasanter or more inclusive to a shy 13-year-old who found it difficult to fit in.
I have in past years communicated several times with Louise Simpson, and am convinced that she is a strong, caring and excellent headteacher. Were I 13 again, I should feel happy to be joining her school, whatever the names of the houses.
Tom Stubbs
Surbiton, Surrey
SIR – Stowe’s 16 houses are not only named after members of the Temple-Grenville family, later the dukes of Buckingham (“Out with Churchill, in with Greta: Why schools are ‘modernising’ their house names”, March 7). This tradition ended in 2007 when Elizabeth II visited Stowe to open Queen’s House.
More recently, the children of Sir Nicholas Winton and Group Captain Leonard, Baron Cheshire, opened Winton and Cheshire houses in 2019 to celebrate two of our most illustrious Old Stoics. Last year, the family of Colonel Andrew Croft, Old Stoic soldier, explorer, and reforming head of The Infantry Boys’ Battalion in Plymouth and the Metropolitan Police Cadet Corps in Hendon, opened a 16th house, Croft.
While it is true that Richard, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776–1839), opposed William Wilberforce’s Bill for the abolition of slavery, his uncle, William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (1759–1834), and prime minister from 1806 to 1807, proposed and managed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, arguably the most important legislative act of the 19th century, which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire.
Dr Anthony Wallersteiner
Headmaster, Stowe School
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