Jacinda Ardern is right to draw attention to the fragile nature of democracy (New Zealand PM addresses Harvard on gun control and democracy, 27 May). In rewriting the ministerial code, Boris Johnson is making a blatant attempt to save his own neck (Boris Johnson accused of changing ministerial code to ‘save his skin’, 27 May). How long before he changes other cornerstones of British democracy? Why bother with the scrutiny of select committees? Why go through the difficult and expensive process of election? Why not appoint a prime minister for life?
Johnson is as grubby a man who ever set foot in politics, but the electorate need to look at the equally grubby band of sycophantic enablers who keep him in post. If we stand by as Johnson and his cronies stealthily undermine our democracy, future generations may find themselves negotiating a very different political landscape: one that cannot be easily overthrown.
Lynne Copley
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
The shenanigans in Downing Street, and the apparent absolution of the chief political protagonist after police inquiries (barring one fixed-penalty notice), seemed to me to be reminiscent of Bullingdon Club behaviour. Rich “kids” get drunk, trash the place, abuse the servants, ignore the laws that are for the little people and are let off by a spineless police service after heavy action by expensive lawyers.
That seemed bad enough, but now it seems that Boris Johnson has decided to use his power to protect himself by changing the ministerial code. So much for our unwritten constitution, British values and the rule of law. I am incandescent with rage at this shamelessness.
Anne Carslaw
Glasgow
So much of the UK constitution, based in convention as much as law, is reliant on the integrity of its government. It follows that a rogue prime minister, lacking integrity and with a servile majority in the Commons, can alter this uncodified constitution to his own advantage, more or less at will. This government has a long track record of changing, and attempting to change, both convention and law, of which the alterations to the ministerial code of conduct are but the most recent example. It is what makes this government so dangerous. It is accentuating the trend to an unaccountable elective dictatorship. We should not be complacent about the weaknesses of our much-lauded democracy.
Roy Boffy
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
Marina Hyde likens the cabinet’s Partygate comments to quantum physics (No drive, no spine, very little vision: even science can’t explain the creatures clinging on to Johnson, 27 May), but it is equally Marxist. Groucho, when chairing a meeting in the film Duck Soup, does not allow a point to be raised because the current agenda item is “old business”. He immediately moves on to “new business”, but disallows the previous point again because “that’s old business already”.
Joe Locker
Surbiton, London
Marina Hyde could have found a word in another science, biology, to account for Boris Johnson and the weird creatures who cling to him: “atavism”. An atavism is a characteristic thought to have disappeared from the genome of a species many generations in the past, only to suddenly reappear – usually to the detriment of the species as a whole.
Pauline Caldwell
Derby