SIR - The UK government has been shown to be out of its depth when dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. But this is not a party political issue, it is cultural and generational.

Governments have always had to deal with crises no one saw coming. And our government's inability to do so is a result of people with little ability being overly rewarded and promoted into positions of power by a system that puts individuality before competence. It's basically been too easy for Johnson to be PM, helped by an atrocious opposition.

Any government would have found this terrible virus difficult to deal with, which most round the world have. And there has been a lot of hypocrisy with media and opposition being wise after the event, especially with the Christmas debacle.

But if this crisis had happened say 40 years ago, there would have been no internet or Zoom, but it would have been handled far better. Margaret Thatcher would have stopped all foreign travel from the start. She would never have been afraid to tell people what they didn't want to hear. The crisis would have been considerably less serious, partly because people didn't travel around so much, which is something else that needs looking at.

Alan Bates, Bowland Avenue, Baildon