The government had months to plan for events like Eid – why is it shifting the blame now?

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Manchester people of all kinds do love a good party, and anyone who has witnessed the Eid celebrations there will know that they involve lots of people having fun, including teenagers staging big happy get-togethers before they all go home to continue the festivities with fabulous traditional meals.

The government’s advisers seemingly see such conditions as conducive to the spread of the virus from young, asymptomatic carriers to their vulnerable older relatives, and you don’t need a degree in virology to appreciate that.

But we have all known that this was a potential problem for weeks and, other than a few cautionary words hidden among the plethora of advice being churned out on a daily basis, the government at all levels did nothing about it until they introduced the nuclear option three hours before Eid began, frustrating not only the people who had all their plans made and food ready to cook, but all non-Muslims whose other plans have also been kiboshed.

Such lack of planning is not only disrespectful to many thousands of the population of the northern towns, but it also does nothing to promote goodwill and understanding between different sections of our community, which is so important in seeing us through this crisis.

Colin Burke
Cumbria

Boris Johnson’s spokesperson

I have no issue with Boris Johnson employing someone to do part of his job for him (Boris Johnson starts search for ‘£100,000 per year’ spokesperson to front White House-style televised briefings). As a taxpayer, I would expect that sum to come from his existing salary and staffing allowance. It is hardly the people’s fault if the Conservative Party elect a person unable to do an obvious part of the job.

Brian Pooley
Burnham

Biden’s campaign needs Susan Rice

Susan Rice is the smartest person in the room, and she has been in the same room (in the White House) with Joe Biden and Barack Obama for eight years as ambassador to the UN and national security adviser. Rice should be Biden’s vice-presidential pick (“Picking Susan Rice would ruin Biden’s campaign — but there’s another way he can use her”, US Voices). There is no other VP candidate that has her combination of executive experience, international knowledge, and most of all, the “simpatico” that Biden is looking for. As for her ability to campaign, when the VP debates occur and Mike Pence starts with Benghazi, she will have numerous examples of current administration lies to counter, and tear Pence to shreds. In reference to racehorses, consider her the “Zenyatta of Politics”; the horse who ran last until the final turn, only to win 19 of her top-tier races.

Marshall Yagan
Orange County, California

The UK’s environmental failings

Your article (Biodiversity crisis: Quarter of UK’s mammals at risk of extinction, first official red list for country reveals) identifies a sober truth that has been apparent for decades: that the profligate consumption of the nation’s natural resources has wrecked biodiversity and will leave our grandchildren with an impoverished landscape stripped of the flora and fauna that thrived here before and, until the last three generations, alongside humankind.

And yet, walking yesterday on a perfect summer’s day through farmland on the fringes of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, I saw a singular success story where hares were abundant in wildflower meadows from which skylark and other endangered farmland birds were rising in good numbers. Through sensitive management of field margins and crop rotation (as opposed to the prevalent monoculture in prairie fields elsewhere), I learned, from a passionate enthusiast for his land, how “going organic eight years ago” had massively increased insect, bird and mammal populations with no negative economic impact.

The concern is what happens next. Deregulation following our departure from the EU may see the end to all this. Without government initiative, investment and commitment, long-term environmental improvements such as these will disappear and we will be hastening the short-term move to even bigger prairie fields of arable crops drenched in agrochemicals where no birds sing. Given the fact that we have a prime minister with an instinct to be wasteful and short-term who urges us to “Build Build Build” and disregard newt counters, I fear that the impressive acts of those who have been prepared to invest in our children’s environmental future will wither on the stem.

Graham Powell
Cirencester

Foreknowledge of Alzheimer’s is freeing

In Thursday’s Letters, Michael Pate suggested that a blood test being developed for Alzheimer’s might be undesirable because foreknowledge of the condition could lead to anxiety and depression. Perhaps so, but would it not also free those it diagnosed to live for today, packing in every available experience while the going was good? I can think of few things worse than living a risk-averse life only to find that it had all been for nothing. What might compel one more to seize the moment than the knowledge that the stream of moments would be coming to an untimely end? The closest we can get to controlling our destiny is to be able to make plans to exploit the limited time that we have: life’s most bitter regrets are words never spoken, feelings never shared and chances never taken.

Julian Self
Milton Keynes

Dash-cam technology for cyclists

Cyclists are now encouraged to use head and dash-cam technology to help officers prosecute motorists who drive over the speed limit, aggressively, too close to cyclists or overtake in hazardous places. The justification for this is that in the last month alone, more than 3,000 video clips of such infringements have been sent to the police.

May I suggest that the same advice is given to pedestrians, so we can then report cyclists and drivers of electric scooters, who drive dangerously, over the speed limit, aggressively, and without due consideration for those around them?

This would be particularly helpful as an increasing number of cyclists seem to be mounting pavements to hasten their progress, or simply ignore red lights.

The police force, though increasingly overworked due to disregard of social intercourse and the non-compliance of wearing face masks, will shortly be increased, as promised by the government, so should be more than adequately able to deal with such infringements. Considering the backlog of court cases, I am sure it is not beyond the government’s imagination to introduce night courts. This would also boost employment numbers.

Gunter Straub
London NW3