'Reform is needed both in a literal sense and to all of our institutions' - Your Letters: June 4
PICTURE FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Rhythm Rangers entertainment group who, from 1943 to 1945, staged shows in most villages in Shropshire and parts of Wales to make money for Shropshire hospitals – and also entertained troops at the Little Theatre and Garrison Theatre at Donnington.
DON'T SCAPEGOAT KEMI BADENOCH
There is much speculation that the Conservatives will replace their present leader in light of the awful local election results for the party. This would be wholly misplaced and do absolutely nothing to help that party. The Conservatives are suffering, but not because of Mrs Badenoch - indeed she is one of the more thoughtful of their number.
The Conservatives are weighed down by 14 years of broken promises and the Cameron period which took that party as far away from recognisable Conservatism as it was feasible. From open selection of candidates to primaries Cameron succeeded in bringing in whole rafts of liberal minded members. He embraced what he called "a husky hugging mantra" and devised policies to support his new found liberalism, gay marriage being one of his totems. At the same time having promised immigration in the tens of thousands Cameron delivered the opposite pushing the net figure ever higher. He failed to bring back any meaningful concession from the EU although many of us knew such an attempt would fail.
Under the 14 years of the Conservatives UK productivity did not recover to the pre credit crunch times and economic growth was anaemic at best, absent altogether at worst. Mrs May made the party's image even worse with her robotic style and the ridiculous writing of net zero timeframes into UK law.
