Shame on those who abused their power to cover up the Afghan fiasco
Yet again, British citizens have been treated with utter contempt by the people who were elected to serve them.
They should all be ashamed, but somehow I think they're not.
Kurt Mayer
Billericay, Essex
SIR – After the Afghan super-injunction fiasco, how can the Conservative Party ever be trusted in power again?
Dominic Shelmerdine
London SW3
SIR – The super-injunction imposed to hide the appalling Ministry of Defence data leak was simply another attempted Whitehall cover-up. Sadly, the details were by then almost certainly already in the wrong hands.
Johnny Mercer, the former minister for veterans' affairs, captures all that is wrong with our Civil Service, where there is no accountability, no responsibility and no ability to function effectively at cross-department level, and where cover-ups are routine (' Finally, the ineptitude I saw first-hand has been exposed ', July 16). Fundamental change in Whitehall is urgently required.
Kim Potter
Lambourn, Berkshire
SIR – John Healey, the Defence Secretary, warns against a Ministry of Defence witch hunt in the aftermath of the Afghan leak scandal (report, July 16). He needs to understand that, in the real world, there is no prospect of improvement in performance in the Civil Service until those who make such errors are held to account.
Mr Healey has also apologised to the Afghans who have been affected by the leak. Perhaps he should first have apologised to the British taxpayers, whose money has been wasted through the negligence of the MoD.
Andrew Beale
Norwich
SIR – The degree of ineptitude on display in the shameful story of the Afghan migrant cover-up will continue indefinitely, unless we can find some way of attracting businessmen and women back into government.
The practice of people going into politics who would not succeed in the cut and thrust of commerce and industry must cease.
Bob Russell
Brighstone, Isle of Wight
SIR – The key issue in the fraught debate on Afghanistan must be the safety and welfare of people whom the United Kingdom has a duty to protect from harm by the Taliban. Everything else would seem secondary.
Andrew McLuskey
Ashford, Middlesex
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