Sir, – Sarah-Anne Cleary (Letters, August 29th) is the latest in a line of correspondents taking offence at the coverage by your columnists of the two contenders to be UK prime minister.
While it is certainly good that there is greater diversity in the range of candidates, no policy should go unscrutinised simply because of the gender, ethnicity or sexuality of the candidate.
The criticism of Liz Truss is not in this instance because she is a woman but because her policies, so far as they can be discerned, are aimed not at the whole electorate but at the tiny segment of it which comprises the membership of the Conservative Party.
Her main economic policy, cutting taxes, is the exact opposite of what is needed in a recession. The reversal of the increase in national insurance contributions greatly favours higher earners and does very little for those at the other end of the scale. On the energy crisis, she is silent. This is not leadership, it is opportunism, as Kathy Sheridan correctly depicts it (Kathy Sheridan, Opinion & Analysis, August 24th). – Yours, etc,
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BILL REDMOND,
Edinburgh.
Sir, – Sarah-Anne Cleary regards Liz Truss’s cabinet service under three successive UK prime ministers refutes Kathy Sheridan’s criticism of the Conservative leadership candidate. Ms Cleary seems to be overlooking the fact that being a cabinet member of a UK Tory government over the past decade is probably the cause of Liz Truss’s “childish ignorance and fully formed idiocy”.
Simple slogans and simplistic solutions may win her the position of British prime minister but such an approach to the economic and social problems of the UK will only add further difficulties for the UK – and Ireland! – Yours, etc,
CIARAN McARDLE,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Sarah-Anne Cleary suggests that ministerial appointment of Liz Truss by three successive British prime ministers may be the result of her talents and not just toadyism and sycophancy.
Your letter writer may well be correct in this.
However, if this is correct, one can reasonably conclude that, on the evidence thus far, Ms Truss manages to conceal those talents very effectively from the watching public.
Alternatively, perhaps the talent pool is indeed shallow when British PMs come to choosing Conservative candidates for preferment to ministerial office. – Yours, etc,
PJ McDERMOTT,
Westport,
Co Mayo.