Letters: <strong>Philip Hilton</strong>,<strong> Gillian Morriss-Kay, Alison McKendrick</strong> and <strong>Margy Wooding </strong>on hope, loss and lessons from the tragic death of the 12-year-old
Like the figures in Richard III’s nightmare, readers of Jonathan Freedland’s impressive charge sheet will “throng to the bar, crying all, ‘Guilty!’, ‘Guilty!’”. But many, like me, will reject Freedland’s conclusion that “some of the shame [for Boris Johnson’s success] is on us”. It is a safe bet that no one who read to that final sentence, has ever cast a vote for Johnson.
Analysis of Brexit voting patterns showed that very few people with a university degree, and hardly anyone with A-levels, voted to leave the EU – to that one could add most Guardian readers. Johnson’s lies, and a depressing admiration for the way he tells them, deluded a specific section of the electorate then, just as it continued to delude them in the “red wall” seats in the last election. The result is a government that can flaunt its lies, sleaze, corruption and incompetence, and yet retain the loyalty of its support base. But I can hardly be alone in resenting the invitation t