Viewing the Irish political arena through the prism of Brexit is a mistake

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Priti Patel’s previous comments about Ireland do not inspire confidence (Getty)

Viewing the Irish political arena through the prism of Brexit amounts to a failure to appreciate the complexities of the dynamic and evolving political situation in Ireland.

Priti Patel’s suggestion in 2018 that the UK government should threaten Ireland with food shortages in order to get it to drop the demand for a backstop arrangement serves gives us a sense of how flawed the government’s thinking is. It also demonstrates a woeful ignorance of the history of relations between the two countries – not a first for a British minister.

Hard choice and hard bargaining lie ahead for Britain too.

Dominica Jewell
France

Racist Windrush deportations

The racist Windrush deportations continue. You don’t see planes full of other non-nationals who have committed crimes being sent back. I’ve just seen Javid lie through his teeth about the deportations, saying none of them are of the Windrush generation.

But some of them were children, aged only four or five, when they arrived here. Their parents were invited here to bolster jobs – which some white people considered themselves too good to do – and the economy.

Richard Kimble
Address supplied

Bridge over troubled water

Any civil engineer will tell you that a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland is about as feasible as one from Cape Town to Singapore.

Much of that channel is 1,000ft deep, and would require structures never before attempted anywhere in the world since they would undoubtedly collapse. Factor in the frequently appalling weather conditions in the area, and one wonders what goes through the mind of Boris Johnson.

If he is giving “serious consideration” to such a project, can I advise him to watch a 1964 Lionel Jeffries classic called First Men in the Moon. He might get a few ideas there.

Mike Galvin
Winchcombe, Gloucestershire

The greater threat

There is surely a stark disparity in the logic currently displayed by our government. On the one hand, we have recently seen the potential impact upon greater society by convicted terrorists when they are released from prison.

While on the other hand, the government has moved quickly to legislate to prevent potential coronavirus carriers from being released from their quarantine confinement.

Anyone might think the latter group of citizens present a greater threat to society than released terrorists, or that the convicts have more rights than potential coronavirus carriers.

Is there any chance our political masters might also have seen this disparity, and realise that if it is right and fitting to ensure potential carriers of a virus must be kept in isolation until it is proven that they no longer pose a risk, then the same treatment must be applied to our convicted terrorists?

David Curran
Feltham, Middlesex

Corbyn must go now

If a leader of any other establishment – be it business, banking, conservatives or education – badly fails and brings the organisation into disrepute, they normally leave the post immediately to be filled by someone who takes it forward. How is Jeremy Corbyn still in the post after such a disastrous campaign that caused him to lose grassroots Labour supporters?

Surely the party can see that he needs to step down now, not wait until April, and take his far left nonsense ideologies with him. Let a genuine leader come in and build the party up with policies that are in touch with the people.

H Shaw
Hoole, Chester