Actually, Mr Cameron, as history should have taught you, "England and penalty shoot-outs" do "go together" (Quote of the day, 05/07/18). What "don`t go together" are prime ministerial leadership and referendums, something apparently, even the most expensive education in the country did not teach you.
Now that we have an approved word for "rude or obnoxious persons", can Guardian letter writers feel free to use it when writing about the people responsible for the callous austerity cuts, the underfunding of all public services, under-investment in all areas of the UK except London, and the refusal to end tax avoidance and evasion (Dyer cuts through Brexit bluster, 30/06/18)?
As the public is coughing up an extra £30.4m for the Queen to refurbish Buckingham Palace, would it not be a good idea to let the public see, without charge, the "10,000 works of art" being "decanted" whilst the work is in progress" (Palace refit to see 10,000 artworks moved for safekeeping, 28/06/18)? Rather than relocate them to other "parts of the palace or other parts of the royal palaces estate", how about sending them out to other parts of the country, or are they all regarded as too unsafe?
Your editorial states that "in their different ways, both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have tried to ignore the half of the country that voted to remain in the European Union", but this is as misleading as the Brexiters` propaganda (The weekend pro-Europe demo should give MPs courage to set the terms, 26/07/18).Taking into account the 72.2% turnout at the referendum, the fact is that only 37% of those eligible to vote supported leaving, with 35% against, hardly "half of the country"!
What the figures above do reveal, however, is that there is a strong case to be made for a second vote, and that politicians, mostly Tories and their right-wing media friends, are totally ignoring the wishes of the 28% who chose not to vote. Isn`t democracy meant to be governments ruling on behalf of all of the people, not just a random 37%, and especially not merely the ones who voted for the party elected to govern?
First we have Philip Green, whose greed and corporate chicanery allowed the BHS pension fund to build up a deficit of £571m, who is a known tax avoider, and whose behaviour meant the loss of 11000 jobs, claiming that "serious and potentially irreparable harm" might be done to his reputation if publication in full of a watchdog`s report goes ahead (Green seeks to gag critical report on BHS scandal, 22/06/18)!
Then there`s the news that resident of Monaco, Lewis Hamilton, is actually "very patriotic" and proud to be a Brit", so proud, as the Panama Papers revealed, he had to use an Isle of Man scheme to buy his £16.5m private plane in order to avoid paying VAT (Passionate fan Hamilton looks to England for his inspiration, 22/06/18).
It`s clearly not only Tory politicians who are taking us for mugs!
Looking forward to reading expert analysis and discussion about the north-south investment gap, with Labour`s decision not to support the government`s plans for a third Heathrow runway, and Lisa Nandy`s revelations to the House of Commons about ministers being warned of "impending chaos" on the Northern rail network two years ago, I was disappointed to find that there was no mention in my newspaper of the subject at all. There were, however, two pages devoted to Royal Ascot!
Can we leave the playing of the "race card" to right-wing politicians, please?
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