. I'm not interested in the past. I'd very much like to know new policies and whether they will be adhered to after an election. I have absolutely no trust in our current politicians – and despair for the future. W Harrison Crewe, Cheshire SIR – Anthony Cutler ( Letters, October 3 ) is right that major British projects such as HS2 begin with lofty ideals and then descend into the weeds. The only vision is tunnel vision. Everything is determined by the short-term nature of the electoral cycle. Secretaries of State are rotated in an interminable game of ministerial musical chairs, never staying in post long enough to understand their brief or achieve anything of worth. Stan Labovitch Windsor, Berkshire SIR – If construction of HS2 had begun in Manchester and Leeds, working its way south, cancellation would never have been considered (' Sunak to sound the death knell for 'HS2 north' ', report, October 3). The PM risks ripping the heart out of the northern economy for generations to come, and creating a seething rift between North and South. As a lifelong Conservative voter, a party member since 1975 and a former association chairman, I feel that our region will have been deserted by our Government, and my party allegiance will be sorely stretched – possibly to breaking point. Neither Margaret Thatcher nor Boris Johnson would have treated the North so disdainfully. John H Lowe Rossendale, Lancashire SIR – Jacob Rees-Mogg's suggestion that the £10 billion 'saved' by cancelling the northern le){kind=link}
Plus: regulating counselling and psychotherapy; John Lewis’s decline; Britain’s perverse nuclear policy; and the purpose of pubs
SIR – With constant broken pledges by politicians – HS2 being an example – and continual backtracking on policies by all parties, I find myself at a loss regarding how to vote at the next general election.
There seems to be no appetite in the present Government to listen to the concerns of ordinary people. This is frequently demonstrated by the Prime Minister, who talks over anyone trying to interview him, and constantly harks back to what a wonderful Chancellor he was (he says).
I’m not interested in the past. I’d very much like to know new policies and whether they will be adhered to after an election.
I have absolutely no trust in our current politicians – and despair for the future.