The Reader: Ken Clarke as caretaker PM sounds like a winner

Ken Clarke: linked with the position of caretaker Prime Minister
REUTERS
27 August 2019
WEST END FINAL

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As we approach the end of the summer holidays, I have noticed increasing reports and comments around the possibility of Ken Clarke becoming a caretaker Prime Minister.

I have to say that this is probably the most sensible suggestion from the political world that I have heard in many a year.

Could this be the moment for one of our most able politicians to reach his deserved pinnacle? And are we about to witness some kind of sanity returning to the UK?
Robert Boston

Editor's reply

Dear Robert
I have huge respect for Ken Clarke, who I turned to regularly for advice when I was Chancellor. But this talk of a self-styled government of national unity misses the point that half the country, and half the MPs, are Brexit-supporting and would regard such an administration as the opposite of unifying.

That’s not to say that a cross-party alliance of MPs couldn’t block a no- deal Brexit — after all, such an alliance succeeded this spring in passing legislation that forced Theresa May’s government to seek a delay, and their numbers will have been swelled by a clutch of newly ex-ministers. But stretching that alliance to forming a new government feels highly unlikely to me, and would shatter it.

Ken Clarke was a distinguished occupant of Number 11 but he’s not going to be moving next door.
George Osborne, Editor

Camden is not a housing paradise

Petroc Trelawney’s Comment article on Camden’s council housing misses key facts. The first is its 3,000 decrepit homes. Only four English local authorities have more houses that fail the decent homes standard.

Tenants refuse more council homes in Camden than anywhere else in England. Even new flats, such as Highgate’s Holly Lodge estate, are uninhabitable, with Camden being forced to buy out residents’ leases.

This is bizarre, as it costs Camden £400,000 to build the average council home, without land cost: 30 per cent more than other boroughs. While other councils borrow to build, Camden has said it can’t afford to.

Councils must give a greater role to expert builders on complex developments, as councils can’t manage them cost-effectively.
Oliver Cooper, Opposition leader, Camden council

Everyone agrees we need more homes, and Jonathan Prynn’s article (“Housebuilding rising at slowest rate in London”, August 21) highlights this. But when faced with hard choices our system is often paralysed. Nowhere is this more acute than London, where redevelopment is usually the only option. It seems there is no nuanced debate about the planning process.

Stand-offs defined by crude assertions are politically appealing but self-defeating. Developers and councils must communicate openly to restore trust with communities.
Craig McWilliam​, CEO, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland

Falsettos protest is out of tune

What a ludicrous campaign headed up by notable Jewish actors Maureen Lipman and Miriam Margolyes , who object to no Jewish actors being cast in the upcoming musical Falsettos.

If one extrapolates their argument, may only Catholic actors play Catholics? Or Episcopalians play, well, Episcopalians?
Robert Sandall

Disability access on trains is a joke

The experience of equestrian rider Sophie Christiansen on a South Western Railway train — she was left stranded because there were no ramps for her to use to get on and off — is far from rare. Hardly a week goes by without a disabled person suffering access discrimination on public transport.

The Government should legislate to force companies to provide seamless disabled access on trains, as well as boats, planes, buses and taxis.
Ian McNicholas

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