Can you really trust this shifty prime minister with your life?

South Korea is experiencing a new spike in cases after easing lockdown restrictions. Germany’s R-rate has increased after reducing its own measures two weeks ago.

So, although we have over four times the number of new infections as Germany and France, and although countries with much lower numbers are experiencing some resurgence of the virus, we are going to go ahead and ease the lockdown, backed up by a meaningless and confusing slogan. Our government’s incompetence is clearly reaching new heights.

Do we trust our PM’s judgment? In Denmark, where the virus seems to have been contained and restrictions managed very effectively, according to media reports and my own friends over there, the government trusts the people, and the people trust the government. The great majority of Germans trust Angela Merkel.

Both governments have been very open from the start about the issues facing them and their people, the people have responded very well, and trust has been maintained through openness and transparency. Nobody has made false claims, misused data or needed to emphasise just how hard ministers are working.

Here we have a prime minister who, when challenged on our catastrophically high rate of infections and deaths, denies the evidence and goes on to claim that the general public are fully behind him and understand his strategy. I have yet to hear anyone who supports the changes.

Soon he will walk us away from the most successful free market and customs arrangements ever established. Having made a complete mess of managing the virus, he will now proceed to destroy both the economy and the union.

So, who do we trust now? Our protectionist new trade partner across the pond, or our much larger proven trade partners and closer neighbours in Europe? Whose values do we feel more in tune with? Where are our future security, prosperity and freedom more likely to be secure?

Phil Green

The government’s policy on ending the lockdown is viewed by many as requiring wholesale changes. I disagree.

Very little needs to be altered to understand it. When Boris Johnson says his plan is ‘incremental’, .just swap the ‘in’ for ‘ex’.

Paul Stein

Pickering

I’ve heard several people say, ‘I don’t care about the economy, it’s about saving

lives’.

They are not mutually exclusive. Without the economy we have no money to do the things we need to do, like buy ventilators and PPE or fund hospital intensive care beds.

Even though the new advice is confusing, we have to work it out and do it with compassion – no hard stick management and unsafe working environments. Responsible employers are needed to ensure a safe working environment for all.

Tony Howarth

London SW3

I wonder if the prime minister spent time listening to The Navy Lark while recuperating. His Covid-19 exit strategy is very similar to that used by the Leslie Phillips character to get his ship out of trouble: ‘Up a bit, left a bit’

Kathy Erasmus

London

Teachers can be in a room with 15 children they do not know, but not in a room with their own grandchildren.

You can have a nanny or cleaner in your home, but not your own mum or dad.

You can drive to any beach you like in England, but not stay overnight in your empty caravan or holiday home when you get there.

I remember a time when Brexit was supposed to collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. It didn’t but this lockdown advice just might.

Emily King

Cambridge

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