Sir, – There is a huge quandary for the DUP as they ponder losses to the Alliance Party, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), which is quite a political spread.
Their disingenuous posturing and posing over the executive and protocols, etc, have come home to roost, leaving them in a mess of their own making. What now for the party of Paisley? – Yours, etc,
NEVILLE SCARGILL,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I’m taking inordinate pleasure in watching the Tories arriving in the “sunlit uplands”! – Yours, etc,
TERRY PATTISON,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – A thumping victory for the Labour Party but will it put more change in the pockets of the ordinary British people?
Whatever about mending Irish-UK relations, the UK needs a transformative deal with the EU and US to lift its economy out the mess that Brexit created. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN RODDY,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Two-thirds of the British electorate did not vote for Labour, yet it has won a landslide majority. It may be democracy, but not as we know it, thankfully. – Yours, etc,
DENIS MORTELL,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – David Lloyd George, the British prime minister from 1916 to 1922, maintained that proportional representation (PR) was a device for defeating democracy (the principle of which is that the majority should rule) and for bringing “faddists” of all kinds into parliament. This point of view is hardly rational or sustainable in a general election where Labour’s less than 2 per cent increase in its vote since 2019 translated into over a 100 per cent seat gain, while the Liberal Democrats’ less than 1 per cent increase translated into over an eight-fold increase in its seats. These are just some of the incoherent statistics emanating from the British general election.
Despite the vicissitudes of the Irish proportional representation (PR) electoral system – long counts, quotas, eliminations, and surplus distribution – we should be thankful for a system that is a far better reflection of the views and wishes of the electorate. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – The title of worst UK prime minister is inevitably going to be a matter of some debate as the office dates back centuries, and the challenges and circumstances of the job vary enormously. Nonetheless until recently Anthony Eden was seen as a strong, if not unrivalled, claimant for the status of greatest failure.
Lately, however we have seen intense competition for the distinction. David Cameron for proposing a disastrous Brexit referendum to offset a populist uprising can be suggested as a contender.
Clearly, Boris Johnson is a sort of renaissance man of the game, for dividing his own government to advance his career, making nonsensical but persuasive arguments to lead the UK out of the EU, and for his pièce de résistance in mismanaging Covid as he visited affected patients without protective measures, before requiring ICU admission himself for the illness. All while having boozy parties while the population were in lockdown.
But could it yet be Rishi Sunak who ultimately has led the party to a reversal in seats held of astonishing magnitude?
And then there’s Liz Truss who, despite her ephemeral tenure, managed a woefully ill-conceived budget policy and to construe the death of the monarch as being about her. Is she untouchable?
Rather like metaphorical buses, in that you wait ages and then a bunch come along together, this debate has in under a decade become a very open one. Let’s hope there are no further contenders on the immediate horizon. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.