Letter: History will deliver a harsh verdict on Boris Johnson's Government

No matter how often the Prime Minister deploys his toolkit of bombast, bluster and denial, thousands of avoidable deaths will forever hang like an albatross round his neck.

It will be particularly difficult for him to “spin” away one specific charge - that of showing total disregard for people’s lives through his obsessive embrace of Dominic Cummings.

At a local level, it is deeply disappointing that our local MP, Dean Russell, has utterly failed to seize his first big opportunity to stand up for the people of Watford.

Mr Russell makes much of his volunteer work at Watford General Hospital, but when confronted with a Prime Ministerial policy that threatens the well-being of the Watford people he claims to care so much about, he meekly rolled over and supported Mr Cummings.

We’ll probably never know, but it is entirely possible that as a result of the PM’s bizarre behaviour and its undermining of the lockdown rules, some of Mr Russell’s constituents may catch Covid-19 who would otherwise have avoided it, some of these may suffer gravely, and some may indeed die.

But upon raising these matters with Mr Russell, his constituents get a long, meandering reply (the one I read had 1,800+ words - much of them probably written by Tory central office) that makes no reference whatsoever to the Prime Minister’s behaviour and the danger it poses for Watford residents.

Instead, one reads a defence of Mr Cummings that seems to regard his extreme irresponsibility, breathtaking arrogance, and astonishing lack of contrition as behaviour akin to that of an office junior guilty of no more than infringement of some insignificance administrative rules, and who should consequently be given the benefit of the doubt.

Mr Russell appears to be auditioning for the role of Baldrick to Mr Cummings’ Blackadder, which does not bode well for the people of Watford.

Ronald McGrath, Langley Way, Watford