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It was uplifting to see that most world leaders alluded to climate change in their congratulatory letters to president-elect Joe Biden. This is the most defining issue of our times and let us hope that world leaders will unite and marshal their efforts to mitigate the impacts of environmental degradation, climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, ageing, migration, growing inequalities, loss of biodiversity, extinguished wildlife and social isolation that are a blight upon the 21st century.
Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob
London
Talking of the planet…
Please does anyone know of a reliable company for recycling? There’s a shedload of red caps (bearing stupid slogans) in the US which need to be turned into something useful.
Graham Bradshaw
Mansfield
Don’t make Trump into a martyr
Take care not to demonise Trump. We all need a story to make sense of our lives, and the story of Trump is that, in my view, of a psychologically and emotionally damaged man with considerable talents who couldn’t in the end achieve the sort of greatness he so desperately wanted. His hate-inspired base would love to see him as a defrauded martyr. Make clear that in reality he was a sad, deluded and rather pathetic man who deserves sympathy and understanding while the nation moves on to a more stable, caring and socially cohesive future.
David Buckton
Cambridge
Biden will bring us together
Some right-wing evangelicals in the US claimed that Donald Trump was God’s choice to lead the nation. If that was true, then he should not only have won the presidential election but have done so with a landslide.
It is clear that the eyes of the majority of Americans were opened to see Joe Biden as the best candidate – a thoroughly decent man with the ability to bring the country together and restore its standing in the world. Those that oppose the result, on the other hand, could be said to be doing the devil’s bidding in pulling the country apart at a time when it needs to stand strong.
Roger Hinds
Surrey
Marcus Rashford strikes again
The current weak and woolly government has yet again been forced to make a U-turn in light of Marcus Rashford’s splendid intervention in the disgraceful fight for free meals for school children. It is unfortunately too later for the October half-term, but free meal vouchers will now be available into the new year. Why has it taken a 23-year-old sportsman to help those who are struggling to feed their children instead of the government department charged with the job?
I’ll tell you why – this government just does not care about the struggling families blighted by low incomes and now the pandemic. In this day and age nobody should go hungry in our wealthy society but instead we need real champions, like Rashford, to bring the government to its senses.
Well done, again, Rashford – you certainly are a terrific role model for not only our young children but also our so-called “leaders” who could learn a thing or two from your great and honourable efforts.
Keith Poole
Basingstoke
Advisers need a revamp
I read John Rentoul’s column about the role of special advisers in the government and their forthcoming meeting to discuss the latest plans to revamp No 10. Of course they have always held great sway in government and have an important role to perform. We all remember Theresa May’s advisers, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy, who appeared to throw a ring of steel around her, but this can be so counterproductive as it stops MPs gaining the necessary access.
We now have Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, who seems to hatch a cunning plan every second, and which are not always in the best interests of satisfactory and stable governance. The prime minister seems too reliant on him and this has not endeared him to the public after the Barnard Castle debacle. So this meeting of past advisers will be, I should imagine, a useful exercise on how to influence strategically, but not irrationally, a leader who sometimes appears to be too easily swayed by quick fixes and damaging advice. A necessary spanner in the sometimes antiquated works can be useful.
Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth
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