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There is no magic money tree – unless you need the DUP to prop up your Government

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Monday 26 June 2017 14:49 BST
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Conservatives have agreed a £1bn deal with the DUP to keep Theresa May in power
Conservatives have agreed a £1bn deal with the DUP to keep Theresa May in power (Reuters)

So a deal has been agreed to support the Conservative minority government, at a cost of £1bn. Clearly there is a “magic money tree” after all!

Arthur Streatfield
Bath

In the immediate aftermath of her profoundly Pyrrhic victory in the recent general election, Theresa May made a speech in which she claimed: “The Government I lead will put fairness…at the heart of everything we do.”

Two weeks later Theresa May has decided the only way she can form a government is by going into a supply and confidence agreement with the anti-LGBT and reproductive rights DUP.

How is a government that contains such people going to promote fairness?

Sasha Simic
London N16

Out of the rat race

Wonderful to read of the families who have taken a long time out discovering the world.(Bye suburbia, hello world: Meet the backpack families, 14 July). A refreshing antidote to Brexititis and the little Englander prejudice we get so much of.

Ian Turnbull
​Cumbria

A minority decision

Gavin Lewis makes a very subjective extrapolation of the Brexit referendum result when he states that voters who abstained were "content to go along with the majority decision" to leave (Letters, Sunday).

A more logical assumption would be that abstainers were happy with the status quo, otherwise they would have taken an active step to change it. As it was only 37 per cent of the electorate voted to remove the UK from the EU (a mere 26 per cent of the population). The perils of a binary referendum question are laid bare.

Michael O'Hare
​Middlesex

Leadsom’s type of patriotism

People have been quick to judge Andrea Leadsom after she insisted that the British media ought to be more patriotic when reporting on Brexit negotiations, but the truth is that she didn't make it entirely clear what she meant. Call me a romantic but I rather envisage that she pictured reporters following the lead of the band on the Titanic, playing “Land of Hope and Glory” while we sink beneath the waves.

Julian Self
Milton Keynes

Golden generation

Are desperate Tory plotters really now talking about skipping a generation to find a new leader? The suggestion is that Boris Johnson and others have become toxic.

It's difficult to disagree with that, but the new “golden” generation candidates are said to include Dominic Raab and Priti Patel. However, there's a problem here. Do their backers understand that if either of them becomes Prime Minister the public will find out what they actually believe?

John Gemmell
Birmingham

Reason to smile

Thank you so much for publishing the Happy List! Even bigger thanks to all of those wonderful people for making the world a much better place. After all the sad and horrible news stories recently it great to be reminded that good people exist and love will conquer hate.

Mary Park
St Annes

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