Boris Johnson’s “terrors of the earth” threat to his misogynist colleague (Report, 25 April) was a more appropriate quotation than he perhaps realised. The passage is spoken by King Lear, who now finds his followers reduced in number and his authority passing to others. Pathos rather than threat, in other words.
Peter Griffith
Droitwich, Worcestershire
• It was unfortunate that the Tory MP admiring “Boris’s Oxford Union debating training” (Angela Rayner hits out at ‘sexism and misogyny’ in politics, 24 April) had not first read your article on how the Oxford Union created today’s ruling political class (The long read, 19 April).
Richard Davies
Southport, Merseyside
• I’d add bamboozling, boorishness and bravado to Neil Hutton’s list of skills supposedly provided by Boris Johnson’s Oxford Union debating training (Letters, 26 April).
Maggie Butcher
London
• Baloney, bravado, and bullshit.
Les Bright
Exeter
• Half Man Half Biscuit (27 April) have a song for every occasion. This line from the band’s Token Covid Song neatly sums up the government’s attitude to living with Covid: “Others simply cross their fingers and hope.”
Melanie White
Reading, Berkshire
• Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition (Letters, 26 April).
Carol Hedges
Harpenden, Hertfordshire
• It’s “t’Spanish Inquisition”.
Dr Allan Dodds
Bramcote, Nottinghamshire
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