The intolerance the country has shown towards Tim Farron’s Christian faith is shameful

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Tim Farron has stepped down as leader of the Lib Dems (AFP/Getty)

The nation should be ashamed of itself that a significant Member of Parliament should feel the need to step down as a leader of a party because he was torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader.

Our nation has seen a significant number of Christian MPs who, led by their faith, have led the world in improving social attitudes and developing practices that have benefited the nation. Many of the nation's finest organisations have been set up by individual Christians who expressed their faith through leading the life of the nation into new and better things and these have blessed the lives of ordinary people and the nation as a whole. The Queen has been a wonderful example of the outworking of an individual's Christian faith in public life.

The fact that Christian faith has been the foundation of the laws and life of this and other nations for centuries seems to have been forgotten by members of the media and other politicians who have hounded Tim Farron from his leadership role. There should be no place for such intolerance and lack of respect for those with whom one might disagree on certain issues. Is this another expression of the secular inquisition that is destroying our nation? We need more Christian leaders, not fewer.

J Longstaff
Buxted

My thoughts and prayers are with the families, victims and emergency services at Grenfell Tower

Speechless was a very small word to describe my feelings at the time when I learned that Grenfell Tower was on fire. I was reading one article after another to know if people were safe.

I had tears in my eyes while looking at some video clips that were showing people shouting for help, they were desperate to escape and safeguard their and their children's life's and it was heartbreaking watching this.

I would like to thank our firefighters who showed such bravery while helping people to escape and all the Muslims and other people who came to help the victims – they surely have saved many residents’ lives.

May God reward everyone who helped the victims in that critical situation.

My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims – may God give the injured people a speedy recovery and may the people's souls rest in peace who have passed away.

Mishal Aziz
Sutton

The good in humanity has shone through after the horror at Grenfell

The tragic fire in the tower block yesterday proved the true value of humanity. The brave people who attempted rescue and the strangers doing everything they could to help the people who had lost relatives their homes and all their possessions.

I only hope that extremists see this and learn. These people who are the ones God will smile on – not them.

John Hudson
Address supplied

The appalling tragedy of the dreadful fire in a tower block of flats in north Kensington will leave anyone with any humanity in a state great sorrow.

While it is probably of little consolation to those injured or the friends and families of victims it was uplifting to see the multicultural response to the tragedy. People of many races and religions joined together with the sole purpose of helping others. Humanity was the primary motive.

Any murderous terrorist who may be planning an atrocity with the intent of stirring up racial or religious hatred should take note that they will never achieve their warped ends when common humanity will always be dominant in our multicultural society.

Patrick Cleary
Honiton

In light of recent events, we can all be catalysts for change amid our grief

London is hurting...

There has been a towering inferno all of last night and today, with London in chaos, sadness and panic again, which is becoming a regular occurrence in the midst of a country which has not yet had a government put into place.

As this evening draws in, with images and testimonials from the event, we are reminded of how powerful the media is. Every news channel is covering this tragedy.

And everytime we drive over the Westway and go to the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, we will be triggered to go into our hearts – as we see the huge, burnt out high rise block that sits gravely over the wealthier neighbourhoods; a testimony to government negligence.

Even now it's mainly the financially underprivileged giving to those who are scattered in community centres, churches, mosques and other religious centres. Communities are gathering food and clothes to help these families who have lost everything.

All due to local government ignoring the residents persistent call to have an independent enquiry into the safety of the building.

Then I think of all the war stricken countries where lives have been needlessly lost, and homes with possessions have been destroyed; where there was a deliberate attempt by governments to destroy. Such polarities, all ending in one thing: complete disregard for human life.

I pray that this event, which has hues of a terror attack in the way that the whole of London has been affected, will wake up the country and the world into realising that it's time to pull together as a global community. In the same way that local communities pull together to support each other on ground level.

We are a city and a country that has so much hidden wealth, massive tourism and global power – and yet the recent events over the last 2/3 months show us how little safety and security are respected as provisions for the people. And how the cracks are starting to show in the exterior mask that pretends everything is fine and glorious as a nation.

We have less police, less firemen, an NHS that is under great stress – and we still have a high level of poverty amongst people, due to high inflation and wages that are not in alignment.

But as we know, it takes tragedies rather than common sense in the human psyche to wake up the sleeping lion in all of us, and to inspire us ALL to be catalysts for change, as much as we can. So tragedies of the scale we are experiencing can cease in this country, and where we cease creating tragedies for others around the world.

As Rumi said, “the wound is where the light enters you”.

Prayers for a humanity that can find its balance again.

Gulrukh Khan
London

There is no such thing as a soft Brexit

If there ever was an oxymoron, it's a “soft” Brexit. Take the Norway option, which admittedly offers single market membership. But it would be on a subordinate basis in that we would have to accept EU policy on trade and competition matters without having any say. Our room for manoeuvre in foreign affairs would be curtailed in that we would have to accept EU enlargement policy and its impact on relations with Russia. Opt also for a common customs area and we would be precluded from having our own trade pacts with third countries.

Membership, needless to say, entails a considerable annual access fee. As for the free movement of labour, proponents of the Norway option give the game away by their weasel wording, such as we would “have to tolerate relatively open flows of migrant labour”. An open border rules out a living wage and, in the longer run, the welfare state.

A soft Brexit would be synonymous with vassalage. This is demeaning. It's either revocation of Article 50 or, better still, a clean break. Negotiate a free trade pact on manufactured goods, based on the one agreed between the EU and Canada. The City can look after itself. A hard Brexit need only arise if the EU rejects a mutually beneficial deal.

Yugo Kovach
Dorset

Trump knows that the British public wouldn't give him an easy ride

Apparently Donald Trump is putting off his proposed state visit until such time as he enjoys the support of the British people (or until pigs fly; whichever happens sooner...)

Is he perhaps too scared to face a bit of robust criticism from the Great British public? It wouldn't be surprising: bullies do often turn out to be cowards.

Mike Wright
Nuneaton