Letters: People won’t forget how lockdown rules made them feel like criminals

SIR – An unfortunate side effect of the publication of Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages in your Lockdown Files (report, March 3) is being reminded of the ridiculous measures imposed on the British population.

I recall a sunny day in Camden where people sitting “socially distanced” by the canal were eating their takeaway food from the market venues, which had been permitted to reopen. A phalanx of police officers proceeded along the towpath ordering those enjoying some brief fresh air and sunshine to return home or face arrest.

These injustices must never be allowed to happen again.

Nicholas Higgs
London W1

SIR – At last it is emerging how Covid turned the Government – and many of the rest of us – into lemmings.

Sadly, I expect many of the culprits will end up in the Lords.

William Blake
Clun, Shropshire

SIR – I am deeply grateful to you for publishing the Lockdown Files.

It is heartening to see that at least one aspect of our democracy is still functioning properly and the Government is being held to account by a free press. Without this investigation, the ongoing and frustratingly slow Covid inquiry would be more likely to be a whitewash.

I would still like to know how it was that ministers thought it appropriate to subject the population to a sustained campaign of emotional manipulation by psy-ops and then seek direction from a continually terrified public to make politically expedient, career-serving decisions, thereby definitely not “following the science”.

I want to see communications around these decisions regarding misuse of behavioural science, and the decision to propagate the lie that everyone was equally at risk from the virus (something known not to be true before the first lockdown). It seems to me that these two issues were fundamental to the ability of the Government to subject the nation to arbitrary, unevidenced, catastrophically harmful – and ultimately mostly pointless – interventions for over two years.

These ministers and unelected advisers must be held to account for their appalling actions.

Dr Zenobia Storah
Altrincham, Cheshire

SIR – I agree with Georgina Stanger (Letters, March 3) that, had we followed Boris Johnson’s instincts, much of the useless lockdown regime might have been avoided.

Sadly, instincts are all Mr Johnson has. He may have a talent for expressing them in speech and writing, but he was unsuited to carrying out a role of critical national importance where attention to detail is vital.

Michael Oak
Stirling

SIR – The messages revealed by The Telegraph this week demonstrate the chaos and duplicity at the heart of the Government.

The ugly exchange about teachers between Matt Hancock and Sir Gavin Williamson does not reflect the relationship I had with the then education secretary. How can trust develop when the secret contempt for teachers and the teaching profession is laid bare like this?

We must not forget that Covid was rampant in schools, and the whole school community was managing a life-threatening risk in the most difficult of circumstances. School leaders, teachers and all school staff felt their responsibility keenly. Apparently, we were taking the whole thing a lot more seriously than many in the Government.

I only hope that Gillian Keegan, the current Education Secretary, has a better understanding of just how hard teachers and school leaders work.

Paul Whiteman
General secretary, NAHT, the school leaders’ union
London SW1

SIR – First our children’s education suffered when we closed our schools because of Covid. This has been followed by teachers’ strike action, which is closing schools again.

Our education system has provided no consistency for children over the past three years. What happened to putting them first?

Nigel Lines
Ferndown, Dorset

SIR – Matt Hancock has been scorned, vilified and derided for his actions during an unprecedented event. We are too ready to crucify this man: nobody was prepared for the pandemic, and I would suggest that most people did their best.

Gary Read
Glynrhedynog, Glamorgan

SIR – I am saddened by our culture of blame. Yes, choices were made during the pandemic that transpired not to have been the right ones. But little was known about Covid-19 at the time, people were dying in large numbers and crisis conditions prevailed. I for one would not have relished being one of the people who had to make decisions.

Anyone proved guilty of acting negligently or with malign intent should of course be punished, but otherwise we would do better to learn the lessons, try to forgive and forget, and move on.

Elizabeth Evans
Ashbourne, Derbyshire

SIR – We would be well advised to remember the appalling part that the Labour Party, under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, played in aiding and abetting the whole sorry mess that was lockdown.

The duty of the Opposition is to oppose. This is an important part of our democracy. Unless ministers are forced to defend their plans, we end up with very poor governance.

However rotten this Tory Government has been, we must not forget that it was given support by an equally awful Labour Party, under the direction of Sir Keir.

Anthony Singlehurst
London SE11

SIR – Roger Cousins’s assertion (Letters, March 2) that our politicians are unqualified to do their jobs must not go unchallenged.

Members of Parliament are elected by us to be our representatives, not to be experts. Besides, I wouldn’t want a member of the British Medical Association as health minister – or a member of the RMT as transport minister.

Michael Keene
Winchester, Hampshire

Sue Gray’s new job

SIR – This country has historically taken great pride in the impartiality and dedication of its Civil Service. Over centuries past British men and women have served the public incorruptibly and indefatigably.

Today, however, we seem to have a Civil Service rather like the BBC, believing that, from top to toe, its inherent internal bias towards the Left in politics – which is quite apparent to others – is simply impartial and correct thinking. Now we have a top civil servant, Sue Gray, quite unashamedly planning to become chief of staff to the Labour leader (report, March 3). The sheer flagrancy is almost beyond belief.

Isn’t it time for impartiality to return to the Civil Service, the educational establishment and elsewhere?

John Twitchen
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

SIR – The indignation of some Conservative politicians over Sue Gray’s career change makes no sense.

It was not Ms Gray who decided to set up the “partygate” inquiry; it was prompted by the number of disgraceful incidents known to have occurred.

Ms Gray simply investigated the facts because this was what she was asked to do, and the job could easily have gone to someone else. Indeed, it could be argued that in her report she let many senior politicians and civil servants off lightly.

James Little
Epsom, Surrey

Pensions inequality

SIR – I read with interest Ben Wilkinson’s article (telegraph.co.uk, February 28) discussing the efforts of 1950s-born women to seek compensation as a result of unexpected changes to their State Pension age.

Many of the 3.6 million affected women continue to face severe financial hardship as a result of failures by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to communicate a rise in their State Pension age, up to six years in some cases.

This is a historic injustice and the long-awaited Parliamentary Ombudsman’s investigation must fully reflect the financial and emotional impact many women have suffered.

We are pragmatic in our ambitions – our argument has only ever been for fair compensation for those affected, and it’s vital that the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s financial remedy is at a level appropriate to earlier findings of DWP maladministration.

We do indeed have an aging population, with many children born today likely to be working into their 70s, but our demographic of women have never enjoyed the working conditions or access to the company pension schemes of today.

While it’s easy for unaffected individuals to criticise from the sidelines, our High Court judicial review appeal has reached £80,000 in just a few days, showing that our calls for transparency aren’t going away.

With International Women’s Day next week, dithering ministers have the opportunity to end this injustice once and for all, and we ask the Parliamentary Ombudsman to ensure that its approach to justice doesn’t leave any affected pensioner behind.

Angela Madden
Chair, Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign
Chesterfield, Derbyshire

Radio 2’s big mistake

SIR – Yesterday I listened to the last programme presented by Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2. As ever, it was most enjoyable. I, like many others, deem Mr Bruce to be the finest radio presenter of his time. The BBC’s decision to place him on “gardening leave” shows a complete lack of respect for him and his listeners.

I look forward to listening to Mr Bruce when he returns to the airwaves with his new employer.

Peter Farrall
Upton Warren, Worcestershire

British tomatoes

SIR – With regard to homegrown agricultural produce (Letters, February 28), in Wissington, Norfolk, we have Europe’s largest sugar beet factory.

Tomatoes were also grown in 18 hectares of greenhouses, using recycled carbon dioxide and water from the factory, and thousands of bees helped with the fertilising. More than 140 tons of lovely, succulent tomatoes were produced annually.

However, in 2016, tomato production ceased. The glasshouses are now used to produce medicinal cannabis.

Maggie Pogmore
Downham Market, Norfolk

SIR – I have grown tomato plants for many years.

The process is very straightforward. Take the seeds from the tomato and dry them. Plant them in a pot with soil or special fibre from a shop. Put the pot in a warm place and water when needed.

When the plants have grown, move them to a larger pot or plant them in the garden in a sunny place. Water them when required.

Betty Potts
Worthing, West Sussex

To good health

SIR – I was delighted and amused to see that drinking a variety of wines has been acknowledged as having health benefits (report, March 3).

Back in the 1970s, when we opened the London branch of Caves de la Madeleine – the mothership in Paris being the location of the late, great Steven Spurrier’s celebrated Judgment of Paris – we promoted, with a soupçon of British irony not intended by the author, Soignez-vous par le Vin by Dr Pierre Maury.

There was no ailment for which Dr Maury did not have a curative wine –Côtes de Provence for cholesterol, Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé for gallstones, Bordeaux for bronchial complaints, and so on.

Perhaps our irony was misplaced after all.

Gerald Trotter
London SW1

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