Readers' letters: Peter Oborne point the finger at Boris Johnson

Oborne point the finger at Johnson

Following Dominic Cummings’ allegations last Wednesday, anyone curious about PM Boris Johnson’s long lack of acquaintance with honesty should read Peter Oborne’s book, “The Assault On Truth” which, the author admits, is not sufficiently lengthy to document all the evidence he gathered of Johnson’s mendacity

He has “form” and it is hardly surprising that he leads a government in which lies and misrepresentation have become the norm.

The alternative to believing Cummings’ allegations is that Johnson brought into the heart of government a fantasist and liar.

Not only that, Cummings worked for Michael Gove at education and all three - Johnson, Gove and Cummings - were at the heart of the Brexit campaign.

Brexit and its populist message has created a tribal loyalty among those in England who voted for it.

Johnson has banked considerable, unquestioning support and it may sustain him even as numerous other promises, such as protecting the NHS, workers’ rights, farming and fishing, turn out to be worthless.Oborne claims that Johnson’s election as PM ended the shared commitment to standards of truth and accuracy in our politics.

His persistent lying is a “form of political theft” robbing the public of their ability to make judgements as a “public domain with shared facts and assumptions” no longer exists. Truth “becomes what power says it is”.

We have been warned.

Robert Farquharson, Lee Crescent, Edinburgh.

Devolution only takes us so far

Many fail to understand the limitations of devolution, as the Scottish government had to initially follow the flawed UK policy on Covid.

It didn’t have the statutory powers to close borders and implement a lockdown or the borrowing powers to compensate businesses and individuals through furlough etc.

It is astonishing that the BBC, including Stephen Jardine on “Morning Call”, continues to promote the narrative that Scotland’s death rate is “roughly the same as the UK” when the official UK government site, https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths by Nation, shows that the death rate per 100,000 in Scotland is 140 compared to 199 in England and 176 in Wales, which has been the pattern over the past 15 months.

Then, on the BBC News channel, Dr Philippa Whitford had to correct Clive Myrie, who claimed that Scotland has one of the highest care home death rates per capita "anywhere in Europe”, by pointing that a recent Nuffield Trust report and LSE research both refuted these claims.

She also stated that about 11,000 care home deaths in England were not put down to Covid, but clearly were.

To date, there is no evidence that hospital discharges led to a spike in care home deaths as opposed to transmission by asymptomatic agency staff and the failure to isolate residents who had caught the virus.

Also, the size of the care home was more of an indicator of outbreak risk than hospital discharges, which were ultimately taken by clinicians and home care managers in the best interest of patients.

Mary Thomas, Watson Crescent, Edinburgh.

Buck stops here

At Prime Minister's Questions Ian Blackford of the SNP quoted Dominic Cummings in trying to blame the UK government for all the mistakes made during the pandemic.

No mention of devolution - ie that health is the respon-sibility in Scotland of Holyrood!

William Ballantine, Dean Road, Bo'ness.