CHRIS Loder in his column in May kindly listed for us the achievements of the Government in the past sitting of Parliament. It was remarkably underwhelming. I held off comment until the Queen’s Speech which, by its threadbare nature, confirmed that his party’s Government has run its course.

In terms of the major issues which the country is facing at present, I would like Mr Loder to address the following questions:

1 – What are the Government’s plans for helping people with the cost-of-living crisis?

2 – Why are ordinary people facing massive increases in their fuel bills whilst the energy companies are recording record profits and awarding senior staff pay rises? Why will the Government not consider a one-off tax on these profits?

3 – What plans has the Government to tackle the collapse of NHS dentist services?

4 – Why are hospital waiting lists getting longer?

5 – Why is the Government proposing to force schools which are happy to stay with their local authority to become academies?

6 – When will the Government fund local authorities properly so that we can avoid the dangerous situation which many people who need social care are now facing because of the lack of adequate support?

7 – Could he give us just one way in which the country is better off as a result of Brexit? Why are Truss and Johnson thinking of reneging on an international deal they themselves signed?

8 – Why has our Government’s response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis been so predictably poor?

In so many performance indicators we as a society are way behind other countries. Loder’s Government seems to be about staying in power and picking fights they think they can win, such as the sale of Channel 4.

The country deserves and needs a government which is serious about tackling the major crises facing us. Can Mr Loder start to address these for us?

Barry Bates

Bridport