Protecting statues of slave traders is not defending British history

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Protesters throw a statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter rally in June last year (PA)

Protecting statues of slave traders is not defending British history ('The government’s rhetoric over statues and our history does us all a disservice’, 18 January). It is sanctifying heavily edited, self congratulatory highlights of British nostalgia, which is the antithesis of real history.

Nick Donnelly

Dorset

So the government’s first legislative response to the concerns raised by the Black Lives Matter movement is to protect lumps of metal and stone?

Dave Baldock

Stafford

Fox the fool

Actor Laurence Fox has tweeted that he won’t be wearing a mask because he has bought a badge from Amazon. His argument, like those put forward by others that masks infringe their human rights, is totally irrelevant and unacceptable. Neither he nor they can be allowed to pick and choose which laws to obey; that way lies anarchy.

Fox and his fellow fools put one in mind of earlier fools who, on the introduction of drink driving laws, insisted they drove better when drunk and knowingly flouted the new law, believing they could pick and choose which laws to obey.  

The authorities did not allow this and the new law was strictly enforced, along with the imposition of real penalties: substantial fines, loss of licence that might lead to loss of employment; time in jail. This helped change public opinion and now we all see drink driving as an antisocial crime, not a human rights issue.

Would Fox accept that, provided the drunk driver bought a badge from Amazon beforehand or claimed it was their human right to drive while drunk, they were entitled to do so, even if they were to go on to kill or maim other innocent bystanders? Fox might be a fool but there must be a limit even to his foolishness.  

The authorities should quickly learn from the past, get out, charge offenders and protect us all.

John Simpson

Ross on Wye

Johnson fears an inquiry

Bereaved families, like mine, who have lost loved ones to Covid will be horrified to read that Boris Johnson has not begun an independent inquiry into his own government's handling of coronavirus.

The Dutch government has resigned over the child benefit scandal. Is our prime minister hoping bereaved families will tire or worried that an independent inquiry would be so damning that it would bring down his government?

Kartar Uppal

Sutton Coldfield 

Doctors feel at risk of retrospective judgements being made on their “field” choices relating to decisions on treatment of Covid patients in real-time, frontline situations.

Are our current government leaders feeling the same pressure for not learning the lessons from the initial wave of the pandemic, not listening to the scientific advice and putting our medical professionals in such a situation? Probably not.

Peter Dilworth  

Anglesey

In memory of those lost to Covid

On the eve of his inauguration, Joe Biden will lead a service for the more than 400,000 American lives lost to Covid-19. The lighting ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool will culminate with a “national moment of unity and remembrance” and bells will toll across US.

While some nations have had national memorials – Spain, for example, had a 10-day remembrance period – this will be the first moment that Americans have come together to share their collective pain.

In the UK, there has yet to be an official moment to remember the dead. Indeed, because Covid-19 has become so politicised it sometimes feels that the simple of grieving has become a political act.

But grief has no political colours. It is important to remember that grief is the flip side of love. The more deeply you love, the more painful the grief, and unless it is processed, grief can turn into anger or depression.  

For one day, the people of America will not just be united in states, they will also be united in grief. On 5 March, one year since the first Briton died of Covid-19, we will be marking Covid Memorial Day in the UK.

Stefan Simanowitz

Covid Memorial Day