Letters - Friday, September 25, 2020

Extinction Rebellion has become a haven for all kinds of anarchists and extreme agitators.

Most members, no doubt, are genuine believers in what they perceive as the gravity of their task on the way to save the planet.

But their morality, I believe, falls short of their vain image as righteous eco-warriors.

In not curbing the near and actual criminality of the core extremists, they are indulging in the unethical principle that the end, noble as they perceive it, justifies any means.

The defacing of Churchill’s statue and a multitude of more damaging acts, including the obstruction of the free press, especially at this time of crisis, hardly inspires respect and sympathy and goes down with the general public like a rib-eye steak at a vegan conference dinner.

These acts of sabotage ultimately hit the less well-off in our society, but pleas for moderation seem as ineffective as attempting to stop a Himalayan avalanche.

If it is not more circumspect, XR will end up as just another ‘virtue signalling’ organisation hijacked by unscrupulous, nihilistic left-wing freebooters.

Gordon Lawrence

Address supplied

Brexit

Tories are unfit to govern Britain

Despite their large majority, the Tories are starting to look fragile.

The Covid pandemic and the impending disaster of Brexit have exposed Boris Johnson and his cronies as being unfit to govern. Put simply, they are incapable of doing what needs to be done.

Firstly, there is the need to build a resilient public health system, capable of handling pandemics effectively.

Local and city governments must be provided with systematic data and the capacity for diagnosis has to be built within the public sector rather than by an uncoordinated jumble of profit-chasing sub-contractors, many of whom are Tory party donors.

Readers of the Gazette may be aware of a trade deal which was recently struck with Japan and triumphantly trumpeted by the Prime Minister as the first of many.

However, subsequent calculations showed that this deal would add a mere 0.07 per cent to the UK’s GDP as opposed to the five per cent reduction which will occur as a result of leaving the single market.

I was no fan of Margaret Thatcher but her Government at least assured that the UK would be an integral part of the best assembly of trade deals in economic history.

These, of course, are now being abandoned in favour of less favourable and (in the case of anything agreed with Trump’s US) seriously damaging ‘deals’.

This Tory Government is not only ideologically incapable of implementing the measures to prevent this looming catastrophe but also intellectually bereft.

However, a means of salvation is available: Keir Starmer and a Labour Government.

John Prance

address supplied

Vrus

Misleading claims from ministers

I fully endorse the skilful analysis of this Government’s Covid testing claims by John Rayner (Your Say, September 23).

I lack his obvious expertise, however, it was apparent to the likes of me weeks ago the falsity of the claims.

Why then did so many media interviewers swallow the claims by Government ministers?

A simple comparison, for instance, would be with large-scale X-ray testing for cancer sufferers, if the results were not provided in good time for treatment to be undertaken.

What would be the reaction of the public in a situation like that?

Denis Lee

Ashton

Virus

Operation Moonshine

The thoughts of our great leader, Chairman Boris, has come up with a fantastic solution to our lack of Covid testing centres.

His solution to the problem of too many people wanting a test (even though it was promised that anyone who wanted a test could get one) is that a million people a day can get tested under a programme called Operation Moonshine.

Oops! Sorry, I meant ‘Operation Moonshot’ (good luck with that). I only hope that the clue is not in the title and instead of a long trip to Scotland to be tested, it does not have to be an even longer trip which involves a spaceship.

M TIPPER

address supplied