WHAT a wonderful gift for irony and comedy combined in a single letter! I have to congratulate Peter Rickaby. (The Future’s Miserable, The Press, June 9)

How he manages it in so few words is truly remarkable. Superficially he appears to want us to see Monday’s lack of confidence vote in Boris Johnson as entirely the fault of an unidentified bunch of people of no particular political affiliation. Neatly concealing the awful truth that is was more than 40 per cent of Tory MPs who voted against their own leader.

As if that weren’t funny enough, Rickaby then invites us to blame “Socialists, Lib Dems and the SNP” for this parlous state of affairs. The tears were already rolling down my cheeks but Rickaby wasn’t done!

He neatly doubles the laughs by accusing those same reprobates for being profligate with money! All this in the context of a certain Boris Johnson who claimed in 2019 to have wiped out the National Debt when it had increased by £0.8 trillion in just eight years under the Tories. And of course since 2019 UK government debt has increased by over £500 billion, while Johnson is PM!

Well done Peter Rickaby, a tour de force!

Christian Vassie,

Lib Dem councillor for Wheldrake

Blake Court,

Wheldrake, York

... PETER RICKABY in Thursday's Press is spot on. Yes the future is indeed miserable as apart from the brave 148, the rest voted to green light the Tory party continue to lie, cheat, break their own laws, hopefully descending into obscurity.

He is also correct. Socialists, Lib Dems, and SNP do know how to spend - on people, not feathering their own fat nests.

The lie of the century has to be the BBB - Boris Brexit Bus. Where is the NHS's £350 million per week he promised ? Northern Power house? Then £9 billion pound of taxpayers' money thrown away with many contracts given to Tory donators on useless masks, PPE gear and worthless Covid testing.

This is the tip of the caring Tory iceberg. You may wish to count up the billions wasted Mr Rickaby, be prepared to spend a lot of time doing so.

Remember, they are toxic, they are blue, and they now can multi-lie to me and you.

William Moore,

Lochrin Place, York