I totally agree with Caroline Lucas’s condemnation of Rishi Sunak’s nauseating speech on Friday (‘I’m still reeling from Rishi Sunak’s shameless, dangerous speech’, 3 March). Sunak’s hypocrisy was breathtaking, even by this government’s low standards. No one has done more to promote division and intolerance than the Conservatives, or to demonise and insult those they dislike or disagree with.
Since 2010, we have seen the Home Office hire a fleet of vans telling immigrants to “go home”, heard the unemployed described as skivers not strivers, homelessness described as “a lifestyle choice”, opponents of Brexit portrayed as unpatriotic or ridiculed as “remoaners”, rightwing vigilantes vandalising Ulez cameras in London defended, and senior Conservatives recently insulting the Muslim (Labour) mayor of London. Meanwhile, young people are routinely derided as snowflakes, while anyone who believes in social justice or basic human decency is sneered at for being woke.
All of this while ministers, claiming to be defenders of free speech against cancel culture, introduce voter ID laws (calculating that citizens who are less likely to vote Conservative will also be less likely to have official ID), curb the rights to protest and strike, try to bully the BBC into becoming a government mouthpiece and regularly demand the scrapping of human rights legislation.
If Sunak is worried about threats to democracy posed by intolerance, extremism and mob rule, he and his senior colleagues should collectively look in the mirror.
Pete Dorey
Bath
• I felt a tingle of excitement when Rishi Sunak’s impromptu press conference was announced (Extremists trying to tear us apart, says Rishi Sunak in impromptu No 10 speech, 1 March). I thought that someone in No 10 had a sense of history, and wanted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the “Who governs Britain?” election, as a prelude to an announcement that we would get a chance to answer that same question next month.
But I soon realised that I was as deluded as cabinet members seem to be about the state we’re in. It’s a bit late for Sunak to start hand-wringing, either as a response to democracy having thrown up a result that he doesn’t like or as faux concern at the tone of modern political discourse.
We are not experiencing “mob rule”, but those with power have provoked and stoked anger, disillusionment and disengagement. Unlawfully suspending parliament, and then briefing against members of the judiciary as “enemies of the people” when they delivered their verdict, have been a more serious assault on democracy than the chanting of any slogans.
Les Bright
Exeter
• I’m concerned at the use of the word “insurgent” to describe two individuals who have stood in a byelection to be democratically elected as a member of parliament (Report, 1 March). While George Galloway’s views may not be to everyone’s taste, his and David Tully’s success in Rochdale reflects a dissatisfaction with the government and opposition rather than the violence and struggle that this word implies.
On the day that the front page read “Democracy is at threat from ‘extremists’, claims Sunak”, we needed the Guardian to tread a less inflammatory line.
Matthew Clark
Hadlow, Kent
• Marina Hyde’s article explains why many voters such as myself will vote in the coming election out of a sense of duty, not enthusiasm (Look at the political hellscape of Sunak, Anderson, even Starmer and ask: are they making my life any better?, 27 February). There seems to be no depth to which these politicians won’t dogo to get down with the people. Even the opposition hesitates to call out such behaviour, for fear of alienating “key voters”. What it reveals is the contempt with which politicians view the electorate. Do they really think “red wall” voters are will enthused more by appeals to misogyny and Islamophobia, that than by fixing their broken schools and hospitals?
Research shows that low-income voters in multi-ethnic areas are more relaxed about having Muslim neighbours than those of the higher income groups, who are less likely to mix socially with other ethnic groups. Is the truth of the matter that it is the latter group to whom Lee Anderson appeals. As for misogyny, is it not a case of Tory MPs thinking that most low-income male voters have the same misogynistic attitudes they hold. I suspect that any survey of male Tory MPs would demonstrate a higher levels of Islamophobia, sexism and misogyny thatthan is current in the nation as a whole. The sad truth is that most of us have little in common with these Tory MPs.
Derrick Joad
Leeds
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