Times letters: Tory leadership race and future of the party

Sir, Your report suggests that staying on until the next Tory was in place would be “gruelling and humiliating” for Sunak, requiring him to make appearances at the King’s Speech and prime minister’s questions (“Scorned MPs rage at peerage for Sunak ally as blame game begins”, Jul 6). However, until Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband resigned the Labour leadership on the spot after losing the 2010 and 2015 general elections, remaining as an interim leader was widely accepted to be part of the job. Michael Foot in 1983, John Major in 1997 and William Hague in 2001 all announced their intention to stand down after landslide defeats for their parties, but stayed on to work their notice until their respective successors were elected.
Richard Briand
Leek, Staffs

• The Times view on the Conservatives’ future: Back to Basics

Sir, There is now a pressing need to rebuild the Conservative Party from the roots up. That means a proper structure in each constituency with as much independence from the central administration as possible. The more members signed up, the more powers could be devolved. Members should have the right to select three candidates for leader with the final say returning to MPs, who have the experience of working with them and risk losing their seats if they make a poor choice. Members could directly elect the party chairman instead.

Constituencies should return to debating policy, submitting motions and participating in an annual conference that ceases to be a moribund media show. CCHQ should be replaced with six or seven regional offices. The selection of candidates should be regional and professional, and completed at least a year before the latest date for calling an election. No shortlist should ever have fewer than five names on it. It would be good if these were all actually Conservative and knew how to behave.
Nicholas Paget-Brown
London SW10

Sir, It looks unlikely that the 121 Tory MPs can unite contently behind any new leader. Is it fanciful to believe that the One Nation members could seek accommodation with the Liberal Democrats, finding enough common ground to create a more effective honourable opposition? It would only take 25 Conservatives to do this.
Richard Balmer
Solihull, West Midlands

• Who could replace Rishi Sunak? The Tory party leader candidates

How we vote

Sir, The discrepancy between vote share and seat share for the Liberal Democrats and Reform is the latest example of the price we pay for a first-past-the-post system (leading article and letters, July 6). The question is whether anything can be done about this without moving to proportional representation, which brings its own problems. One solution might be to allocate a number of seats — say 100 out of the 650 — by national vote share. A party that gained 30 per cent of the vote would acquire 30 seats, one with 12 per cent, 12 seats, and so on. Such non-constituency MPs could focus on specific policy areas. The main problem would be the redrawing of constituency boundaries, but given time this could be done. Would it all be worth it? In judging that, we need to set the necessary disruption against the widespread and corrosive feeling that not every vote counts.
Geoffrey Squires
Hull

Sir, Derek Wyatt’s suggestion of voting online (letter, Jul 6) is a risky prospect given governments’ dismal record with new IT projects. With turnout ever falling, I suggest that compulsory voting be seriously considered. In Australia, with reasonable exemptions and modest enforcement penalties, compulsory voting enjoys community support and achieves an enviable 90 per cent turnout.
Peter Saunders
Salisbury, Wilts

Sir, In 1945, with millions of voters serving overseas, Britain managed to include the votes from even those on the front line in the jungles of Asia. Yet nearly 80 years on we cannot guarantee that every postal vote that was applied for was delivered and returned in time to be included (news, Jul 5; letters, Jul 6).
Richard Philips
Ham, Surrey

Local authority

Sir, I was interested to see that the Labour candidate for East Wiltshire, Rob Newman, has a home address (listed on the ballot) in Newham, east London, while Calvin Bailey, the party’s candidate for Leyton & Wanstead, close to Newham, listed an address in East Wiltshire. Hopefully this is not indicative of the new government’s inefficiencies.
Stephen Wright
Pewsey, Wilts

Electorate’s reasons

Sir, Matthew Parris is of course correct in that a major part of the reason for Labour’s success was that we all felt poorer, but he omitted some other vital issues (comment, Jul 6). For years the Tories were the party that, in government, got things working but this reputation has been extinguished, especially since Boris Johnson took over, with all key public services failing. I’d suggest that this failure also fed the apathy that resulted in a low turnout. We all know, despite the promises, that we’ll be paying more in tax one way or another. Sir Keir Starmer’s challenge is to ensure that we think it’s worth it.
Colin Fuller
Bishops Cleeve, Glos

Sir, Reading Matthew Parris’s article, I am immediately brought back to the sage words of an Indian barman in Kisumu, Kenya. It was in 2006 and we were putting the world to rights, when he remarked that the West “was all about luxury”. He explained that because we had already made it, we had lost the will to work hard, we had forgotten the hunger to improve ourselves, and that our lives focused on maximising leisure time. It has always stuck with me and seemed prophetical, even before any hint of the financial crisis that would unfold over the following years. I think he was right and I am not sure that any government will be able to change our attitude.
Richard Thomas
Ilkley, W Yorks

Labour and Gaza

Sir, Nobody can condone the intimidation meted out to Jess Phillips and her campaign team by pro-Palestinian campaigners (“ ‘Aggressive’ Gaza protest vote cost Labour bigger win”, Jul 6). But Labour’s apparent indifference to the fate of Gaza’s population risks giving credibility to extreme voices. Under Sir Keir Starmer, Labour has successfully purged all trace of antisemitism. Now it is in power, it is time to show British people who are desperately concerned for the fate of Palestinians that they are being heard.
Peter Grimsdale
Former head of religion, Channel 4; London SE21

Grammar schools

Sir, Apropos your headline “Grammar schools ‘don’t increase chance of a university place or job’ ” (Jul 5), there is overwhelming evidence that in order to thrive the more able children need to mix with each other. So many mixed-ability schools in the UK which could allow them time to mingle do not see the need to do so, and do not recognise that the more able have their own special needs. Whatever their failings, grammar schools do at least recognise this, which is why parents and pupils will continue to flock to them. The research on which you reported was based largely on Australia and apparently omitted to mention that Australian mixed-ability schools have had some of the most inspirational provision for teaching their more able pupils. You don’t need grammar schools to make the most able succeed, but you have to want to meet the needs of these children within non-selective schools.
Dr Martin Stephen
Co-author, Educating the More Able Student: What Works and Why; Great Shelford, Cambs

Who owns the past?

Sir, It is pleasing to read that the debate “Who owns the past?” sponsored by The Times at the British Museum was courteous and witty (Weekend Essay, Jul 6). However, of the Benin Bronzes, Professor David Olusoga is quoted as saying that “Nigeria has been requesting their return since it gained independence”. In fact, a large collection of the bronzes was established in Nigeria by the colonial authorities before independence. Its whereabouts are in doubt, except for one piece presented in 1973 to the late Queen by Nigeria’s dictator. A group of descendants of enslaved Nigerians is campaigning to keep such bronzes (made of brass obtained by selling slaves) in western museums where they can be widely seen, rather than becoming again the private property of the heirs of slave traders. Who owns the past? The answer is not so simple.
Emeritus Professor Robert Tombs
Cambridge

Composers heard

Sir, The success of the Kanneh-Mason family (Times2, Jul 5) is inspirational and heart-warming. However, music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor has not been “suppressed”. He enjoyed enormous mid-20th century success, with his settings of Hiawatha regularly selling out the Royal Albert Hall. Fashions change and his popularity waned, though there is something of a resurgence, at least on BBC Radio 3. The uncomfortable fact is there are many composers of great talent and ability fighting to be heard, but simply not enough opportunity. This is a perennial problem that has yet to be solved in the classical music business.
Peter F Lutton
Epsom, Surrey

England on track

Sir, Penalty shoot-outs are inevitably tense. It is possible to exacerbate the tension. The 19.27 Grand Central train from King’s Cross to Sunderland left promptly on Saturday night, just as the shoot-out was starting (sport, thetimes.com, Jul 6). The four tunnels immediately north of the station are an average of 600 yards. The mobile TV signal was cut four times only to briefly reappear in between tunnels. What a relief to catch up as we got to open countryside!
Nick Eleanor
Oulston, N Yorks

Koala caution

Sir, I am astonished that tourists need to be discouraged from cuddling koalas (news and leading article, Jul 5). I did so once and it was like embracing a used Brillo pad.
Virginia Llewellyn Smith
Oxford

Keep your hair on

Sir, Nearly 54 years ago I grew my first full beard. Shortly thereafter I met the woman who became my wife. The beard may once have reflected an inclination on my part to settle down (news, Jul 4; letters, Jul 5 & 6; comment, Jul 6), but the real reason I have kept it over the years is not, as your correspondent Andrew Bacon suggests, for lack of care about grooming. It is because I cannot take the risk to the relationship of my wife seeing me for the first time without it.
Jeffrey Golden KC
Bude, Cornwall