For me, the biggest revelation concerning ‘Gardengate’ - the party in the garden of 10 Downing Street on May 20, 2020 - is not that it happened but that Boris Johnson apparently thinks that boozing in the garden constitutes work.

Government has punished us for driving when intoxicated since 1967 and responsible employers have strict no alcohol policies applying equally to office-based jobs and to operating machinery.

The machinery of government requires decision makers to think clearly and focus sharply on the issues. Are we being governed through an alcoholic haze? When introduced, Universal Credit was rightly criticised as an unworkable system. Was that because key decisions were taken after a Bring Your Own Bottle session in the Downing Street garden?

Quentin Macdonald Nether Poppleton, York

Are doctors all throwing boozy after-work parties?

An interesting thought was recently shared with me over breakfast. Are other professions and workplaces that are under pressure and stress in this Covid era as prone to throwing parties and shipping in supplies of ‘plonk’ as Downing Street? The public deserves to know.

For example, does the medical profession display similar tendencies, with added rule-bending, deft flexibility, and imaginative interpretations so that after-work, off-ward fraternisations can proceed? It all begs the question: ‘Is the party and Party over for the PM?’ If so, who should be next in the top job? Theresa May, perhaps?

Derek Reed, Middlethorpe Drive, York