Our government is ridiculously naive when it comes to global warming

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‘Little Englanders’ like Lord Frost can play a part in tackling this crisis by staying silent (AFP/Getty)

So Lord Frost speaking in the upper chamber has pronounced that the climate crisis “is likely to be good for Britain”. Can you imagine a more short-sighted, parochial statement that could more succinctly reveal the ridiculous naivety and ignorance of our political leaders?

We face the prospect of rising sea levels devastating many areas. Extreme weather causing unimaginable disasters from famine to refugee crises and unpredictable changes to innumerable life systems.

The “we” that I refer to are the people of this planet who do include the hopefully diminishing band of “little Englanders” like Lord Frost. Your leading role in the Brexit debacle has already cost this country dearly and now you are compounding that misery for future generations. Please play a part in tackling this crisis by staying silent!

John Dillon

Northfield

Now is the time to further our parliament

The current outcry about what is essentially a political appointment rather obscures the bigger question around how the upper house of parliament should be constituted. The option of an elected house does nothing to obviate party political influence, whether sensibly applied or not. It can mean deadlock, as is often the case in American politics, or perhaps worse, when one party predominates uncritical support for legislation.

Now is our chance to further our tradition of innovative constitutional reform. Appointments based upon genuine expertise, political or otherwise, would permit honest scrutiny of legislation from the Commons and perhaps a flow of ideas in the opposite direction.

Cole Davis

Norwich

Why is Farage given so much publicity?

It seems to me that Coutts were perfectly within their rights to withdraw his account and offer him one with NatWest. This was done on financial grounds as well as on his personal views, obnoxious as those may be to many of us.

This man, it could be argued, was heavily involved in Brexit which has cost this country vast amounts of money.

We must stop asking “how high” when this man says “jump,” and relegate him to the obscurity he deserves.

Rob Alliott

Cambridge

Can anyone be surprised that Coutts didn’t want anything to do with Farage?

Nigel Farage is such a hypocrite! In railing against Alison Rose for breaching client confidentiality, he conveniently overlooks the fact that it was he who splashed across the media the fact that Coutts had withdrawn his account with them. He also failed to mention that he had been offered an account with Nat West.

He is really just a grumpy self-publicist. Can anyone be surprised that Coutts didn’t want anything to do with him? Would you?

Helen Bore

Scarborough

The history of the Met police shows they are incapable of reform

When Sir Mark Rowley replaced Cressida Dick as the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, he stepped into the job in the wake of numerous scandals that had exposed the Met as a deeply corrupt and failing institution.

The latest cycle of shame began in March 2021 with the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by the serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens. It carried on through the brutal attack by the Met on the peaceful vigil for Sarah on Clapham Common later that month. Then we learned of the foul disrespect shown by serving officers to the bodies of the murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.

In January 2022 vile social media message passed between officers at Charing Cross station were leaked to the public showing just how deeply entrenched the Met’s toxic culture of misogyny, racism, bullying, and sexual harassment was.

In May 2022 the public learned of how four officers had strip searched Child Q and went on to discover that it wasn’t a one-off case. Between 2019 and 2021 the Met Police strip-searched 799 children aged between 10 and 17 years. The vast majority of children searched were Black.

By June 2022 the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire Rescue Services had to put the profoundly dysfunctional Metropolitan Police into “special measures” because it “is not succeeding in managing, mitigating, or eradicating” causes for concern.

When Rowley became the new commissioner of the Met it was in the process of investigating 1,000 claims of sexual and domestic abuse involving 800 of its officers. The conviction of the serving officer David Carrick on 27 charges of rape and 53 charges of violence against women over his 20-year career was still six months in the future.

On taking office as the new Metropolitan Police commissioner, Mark Rowley promised to restore trust in the police.

Yet video footage has just been released of an incident in Croydon in which a Black mother was handcuffed by Met police officers in front of her traumatised young son. The woman was arrested and humiliated by the 14 officers present over a £1.75 bus fare, despite already having a valid Oyster card.

The police later admitted she was “de-arrested” – in plain language she was innocent.

One year on after Rowley promised to “deliver more trust, less crime and high standards for London” the disgraceful treatment of this woman and her son in Croydon shows that the Met police are incapable of reform. They must be disbanded, London deserves better policing than the Met is capable of delivering.

Sasha Simic

London