Over ambitious and over promoted

Never in my long life has the intellectual bar for the country's Prime Minister (or Politicians in general) been set so low. Whilst I rejoice at the demise of Johnson, I remain alarmed at who and what might replace him.

Conservatives rabbit-on about Momentum in the Labour Party (with some justification), yet there has been an infiltration of the hard right, often ex-UKIP individuals, qualified only by an obsessive hatred of Europe, into the ranks of Tory MPs.

For the last 10 years or so, new MPs with little in the way of experience of real life, of competence, of gravitas, of intellect or indeed of ideas beyond their hatred of everything EU, have been routinely selected by the so-called ‘grass roots’.

Once inside Parliament, they have coalesced into a party within a party, and called themselves The European Research Group. Their first task was to engineer the demise of decent Conservatives including David Gauke, Rory Stewart, David Liddington, Amber Rudd, Philip Hammond, et al, leaving this present residue of over-ambitious and over-promoted wannabes.

All on the PM shortlist are pretty woeful but for a moment just take a more detailed look at one, Penny Mordant, a leading ERG member.

I suppose to her credit, she did apparently do a second dive in a reality TV programme, when the first ended in a belly flop, but it is of concern that her political career seems not to have belly-flopped in quite the same way.

Despite implying a stellar military career, it is suggested she was largely a land-based reservist with her titles and medals seemingly honorary. She used her maiden Parliamentary speech as a bet, to see how many times she could mention male genitalia!

More worrying was what her ex-boss David Frost had to say about her this week. His view: “She was never fully accountable, she was unprepared, lacked a grasp of detail, was often missing and this became such a problem I had to ask the PM to move her. If you're Prime Minister, you've got to take responsibility, you have to be able to run the machine, you've got to be able to take tough decisions, deliver tough messages. Anyone can be photographed against backdrop of ‘I vow to thee my country’ but it’s what you can do in practice that really matters.”

In the EU campaign in 2016, she claimed to Andrew Marr, that Britain could not prevent Turkey joining the EU, which was a straightforward lie, as we always had a veto.

So, televisual, skilled in self-promotion, doesn’t read or understand briefs, lazy, economical with the actuality … remind you of anyone? I would think she’s a shoe in.

John Stooke

Haydon End

Havisham Drive

Dedicated care given by hospital staff

May I, through your newspaper, express my gratitude to all staff during my recent day surgery at the Great Western Hospital.

The whole procedure, pre-op etc carried out by so very many dedicated staff was excellent, with the utmost professionalism and meticulous attention to detail.

I did not get all the names of those looking after me before during and after my surgery but to all of you, many thanks indeed. I sincerely hope that a massive and well deserved pay increase is due to all of you.....

Rodney J M Wirdnam

Whilestone Way

Swindon

Have a view on the news? Write a letter to the editor at letters@swindonadvertiser.co.uk