The west’s reliance on China has compromised our moral standards

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing (AP)

In the days of apartheid in South Africa it is inconceivable that an Olympic games would have taken place. Countries, including the UK, would have boycotted them. Why, then, does a country with a comparably disgraceful human rights record get away with hosting the Winter Olympics?

The world does not appear to have the moral concern it (rightly) had about apartheid – no doubt because we have become so reliant on the Chinese economy for virtually everything we consume.  Not to mention the almost complete disregard for the environment that the Chinese economic miracle has necessitated. I for one will be ignoring the Winter Olympics.

Brian Ferguson

York

Arrogance at the very top

The worst cost of living crisis in generations; a potential European or world war brewing; Covid infection still rampant; personal challenges to his integrity, competence, judgement and future; his party in absolute disarray.

And what is the man who is supposed to be leading this country doing? Playing with trams in Blackpool.

Tim Sidaway

Hertfordshire

The arrogance and sense of entitlement revealed by Partygate is indeed an insult to a long-suffering public and especially to families directly affected by Covid. Did this culture of, to quote your recent editorial, “part medieval court, part drinking den, part frat party venue”, really arise only because of the pandemic? I wonder.

Professor John Armitage OBE

Wells

A word to be used sparingly

Cathy Newman (‘Tory MPs have had enough of Boris Johnson’s political soap opera’, 3 February) tells us that Boris Johnson’s allies are saying that their leader is “depressed” by his present predicament. Those who suffer from depression, experience profound feelings of emptiness, worthlessness, self-loathing and guilt.

It is insensitive and insulting to those who suffer from depression to describe it as Johnson’s current position. Far better to describe his manipulative, petulant and desperate behaviour as the consequence of him being embittered, frustrated, angry and vindictive.

Graham Powell

Cirencester

Sticking point

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s generosity to the gas industry may provide a cushion for gas customers from the rising gas price. What is he doing for those in the country who have no gas supply and have to suffer the comparable rise in the price of oil?

J Longstaff

E Sussex

Whoopi Goldberg

If ignorance is bliss, Whoopi Goldberg’s comments on the Holocaust win her the lottery. To quote Oscar Wilde: “There is no sin but stupidity.”

Stephen Vishnick

Tel Aviv

Liverpool stands united

Liverpool is a city built on migration and we are proud of the part that we play in the UK providing a haven for those seeking sanctuary. Therefore, we strongly oppose the government’s Nationality and Borders Bill.

The proposal to penalise people based on how they enter the UK is contradictory to the fact that how someone enters the UK has no bearing on their need for protection; it is simply a reflection of the circumstances in which they have found themselves. Home Office figures show that well over 70 per cent of people crossing the Channel are accepted as having a need for protection. It fails to acknowledge the fact that for the majority of people there are no safe legal routes for protection.

The bill will have a widespread impact on Liverpool, especially our black and Asian residents and people from other ethnic minority backgrounds. It works in opposition to the government’s levelling-up agenda and flouts international laws created to help those displaced by the Second World War.

Priti Patel’s conflation of the incident at the Liverpool Women’s hospital with the current asylum system risked stoking discord in our communities and resulting in people (including British citizens) being harmed. It saddens us that she would take such a risk with people’s safety.

Joanne Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool                                                                

Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool