Mediaboss Marketing

The Tory party has been accused by Labour of using fake news ads on Facebook to attack Jeremy Corbyn, seen here at a campaign event in Blyth, north-east England, on 5 June. Photograph: Scott Heppell/AFP/Getty Images

Im not a Labour voter, but your front-page article (Labour accuses Tories of using fake news ads to attack Corbyn, 3 June) brought a physical reaction I dont often experience from a newspaper: faintness, dizziness, a feeling of suffocation. Of course I knew that the Tories twist the truth at every opportunity, but I had naively supposed that nowadays they preferred to leave the outright dishonesty to their friends the press barons. Such shenanigans are not unknown at constituency level, but it comes as an urgent wake-up call to see the party rolling out this poisonous fabrication nationally in the middle of an election campaign, and via a channel (Facebook) that ensures it is unchallengeable by the regulators.

This smear campaign is not so much an attack on Jeremy Corbyn as an assault on democracy a fat middle finger raised to the electorate by a sneering bully in blue. It seems there are few depths to which this party will not sink to cement its loosening grip on power. Insofar as she has a direction at all, Theresa May seems desperate to drag our country towards totalitarianism. We have to stop her. Rob Sykes Oxford

Many thanks for exposing the moral vacuum in which the Tory campaign is being planned and carried out. It is to be hoped that Theresa May, who spoke on TV on Friday night about the need for trust in public life, will fire the individuals responsible for this cyber-slander. Is it too late to remind your readers that a new Tory government will implement the constituency boundary changes quickly to ensure a Tory victory in 2022 and for several elections thereafter? The possibility of the UK becoming de facto a one-party state is frighteningly real.

Secondly, I am saddened that you have not respectfully marked the demise of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. In Scotland we are being asked to vote for Ruth Davidsons Conservatives. My local candidate bills herself as Ruth Davidsons candidate, and Ms Davidson herself in an election TV broadcast asked us to Vote for me and my team. A rampant personality cult is developing here. Move over Kim Jong-un. Peter Simmons North Berwick, East Lothian

It was interesting to read Zoe Williams account of her short visit to North East Hampshire villages (Prosperity in search of a steady hand, 1 June). Those of us who live in the constituency but do not have any sympathies for, or inclination to vote for, the Tory party know only too well that so many of our friends, who we love dearly, would not normally think of voting any other way. But we also know that things can and do change. There are enough of us subversives lurking in the background to make us believe that things could turn out very differently this year. My Lib Dem poster stands out bravely in a cul de sac where only residents and dog walkers will see it, but I am still confident that this election will surprise.

In response to a taxi driver who said quite correctly, regarding Brexit negotiations, Were not at war with Europe, Zoe asked Arent we, though? If she really believes this, it is one of the most depressing asides I have read since the referendum vote. If whoever is in power goes into the Brexit negotiations with the attitude that we are at war with Europe, there is no hope whatsoever for the future of this country. Janet Davies Resident of a North East Hampshire village

Follow this link:
Conservatives' fake news ads are an assault on democracy - The Guardian