Lacking class

Published on 21/10/2012 19:17

Just how gullible do these posh politicos think we plebs are? According to an aide, Chancellor George Osborne, along with his posse of advisers – unlike the hoi polloi – “couldn’t possibly sit in standard class”, yet they had purchased standard class tickets (your report, 20 October).Why? Possibly some spin doctor is already weaving a tale that, in these times of austerity, they were trying to save £160 of taxpayers’ money.

Meanwhile, Andrew Mitchell, in his letter of resignation to the Prime Minister, says he only swore once and in a fairly innocuous context, thus by implication branding the police officer’s version of events a tissue of lies. If, after defending Mitchell for four weeks, David Cameron believed him, then why did he not refuse to accept his resignation?

I have never quite understood why Mitchell was so averse to going through the pedestrian gate, unless his bicycle was as large as the magnitude of his ego. Was it – as revealed in the police officer’s statement – that he was adopting a “don’t you know who I am?” attitude? Or was it because he was trying to force his will on someone he regarded as a social and intellectual inferior? If it was either of these, then he has been exposed as a thug and a bully and we can now understand why Cameron was so reluctant to get rid of him as chief whip and, conversely, why some Conservatives wanted him to go.

An SNP delegate at its conference stated that this government was handing Nationalists independence on a plate. If this class divide keeps on happening, then it will be personalities rather than policies that bestow this gift to the SNP.

John R Murdoch

Aldour Gardens

Pitlochry, Perthshire

First we had Plebgate, now Train Gate. Thatcher’s government of the 1980s was highly divisive: you either loved it or hated it. Cameron’s government, however, has managed to unite Britain with feelings of derision and pity.

Neil Sinclair

Clarence Street
Edinburgh