LAST week the received judgement was that we had an authoritative leader who, with a large majority, would make us “strong and stable”.

Labour we believed were led by an incompetent who somehow was also a threat, a traitor, terrorist lover and worse.

We wake up this week and everyone, including the Tory press, have changed their minds. Mrs May is not a supreme leader with all the cards but a dud, not wise and pragmatic but empty headed and out of touch.

Why then were we taken in? Will it happen again when the next Tory leader is imposed on us selling the same distorted message?

The mass media are just not telling us what is really going on. I wish to invite readers to think again, to look carefully at the facts and evidence about Britain’s precarious position and turn your minds from screaming media headlines about leader change and stability.

Changing the singer will change nothing significant unless the song changes. Look again at the manifestos of the progressive parties, their assessments of challenges and choices before sliding back in to deference to our failed guardians.

Ask, if things are getting worse and every public body here is run by the Conservative Party, who are responsible?

Under Tory rule Northallerton has lost RPA, the prison, and now the hospital is in peril. Schools, care homes and libraries are in peril.

Capital, income and wages are being lost to the area. We need a proper plan not more shops and cinemas.

We need to listen and learn, then alter our behaviour, locally and nationally, before it’s too late, not change the leader.

Dr John R Gibbins, Sowerby