Is the UK getting close to Saudi Arabia because we are desperate for friends outside the EU?

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Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary (AP)

Dominic Raab is making pompous noises ahead of his first official visit to Saudi Arabia: “The United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia will continue to work together to tackle global challenges and help to resolve the devastating humanitarian crisis in Yemen.”

I question the use of the word “continue” and the professed sentiment.

Mr Raab added: “Saudi Arabia is one of our closest trade partners and plays an important role in keeping Britain safe.” How, exactly, on either front? Because we sell them arms?

Oh – or are they “closest” because we’ve lost Europe as a trading partner and, in some desperation, have to look further afield for friends?

Beryl Wall
London

Chicken run... and run

I fully agree with Dr K Murphy’s rebuff regarding the real concern of accepting chlorinated chicken into UK and EU. Ie, the conditions that the chickens are reared in are bad enough as it is in the EU, but not as bad as the US (and elsewhere), where the priority is to be as low cost as possible.

However, I would, and have, gone one step further and prioritise animal welfare above personal diet. Be a vegetarian, if not vegan.

The younger generation get it, us old folks have to open their eyes, minds and imaginations.

Scott Peacock
West Lodge, Aberdeenshire

Wow! I guess I really hit a nerve when I wrote about chlorinated chicken.

But your correspondents have done exactly what I wanted, in the following discussion about animal welfare standards.

On that point I am 200 per cent with them.

Steve Mumby
London

Coronavirus panic

Am I the only cynic left on the planet?

Because we communicate in extremes as part of a boiling pot of permanent hysteria, I’ll state clearly that I am not dismissive of Covid-19 and the health challenges (in a depleted NHS) or economic implications.

However, when I wrote weeks ago about the discrepancy between our reaction to the potential threat of the new flu and the obvious and proven premature deaths from, for example, air pollution (30k-40k per year in the UK) I had no idea that things would progress the way they have. I don’t mean the virus but the panic.

Am I still being too cynical in suggesting that our government has now the perfect smokescreen behind which to hide all the problems that we know will result from Brexit?

What we need to learn from Covid-19 is just how unprepared we are for the next time this happens.

Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

Having read your Wednesday editorial on coronavirus, I feel entitled to ask whether, at age 62, I may be suffering from a “pre-exciting condition”.

It could all be just too much for me.​

Rev Peter Sharp
High Peak, Derbyshire

Delayed gratification

I can tell Jess Phillips why we need more time to complete the Labour leadership electoral process: some of us haven’t yet received our ballot papers...

Cole Davis
Norwich