What do these eco-warriors think they are going to prove?

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

To target Baillie Gifford, whose indirect involvement in the fossil fuel industry is minimal and far less than that of its competitors, does not advance the objectives of the climate movement

The recent campaign by Fossil Free Books against book fairs for accepting sponsorship from Baillie Gifford runs the serious risk of alienating those who could be considering voting for the Green Party, and of increasing support for the Reform Party.

To target Baillie Gifford, whose indirect involvement in the fossil fuel industry is minimal and far less than that of its competitors, does not advance the objective of effecting meaningful change in the production and use of natural resources for our energy needs. It is also the perfect gift for those running the anti-woke campaign.

I understand and appreciate Greenpeace’s actions against oil exploration and their demonstrations in London, which involved stopping traffic and highlighting Big Oil’s reluctance to embrace the need to move away from fossil fuel. However, this assault on the sponsorship of book fairs, apart from the political risks mentioned above, will impact the fairs themselves, which have expanded hugely in recent years to the benefit of authors and readers alike.

Baillie Gifford’s recent fame and fortune came largely through their early support and investment in EV manufacture, as well as through Tesla and related industries – not through investment in the oil majors. To increase pressure on the government, FFB and the like need to target those companies and organisations which are actively maintaining or increasing their commitment to fossil fuels.

Graham Scott

Address supplied

The PM’s conduct was an embarrassment to Britain

I read your editorial, “The D-Day commemoration may go down in history as the moment Rishi Sunak lost the 2024 general election”, with interest and agreement. This was disastrous, unfathomable, and so disrespectful to veterans.

Our once great standing in Europe and the world has consistently taken a hammering from this Conservative administration. The PM’s conduct was basically the final nail in the coffin of Britain’s standing on the world stage, forged over so many years only to be discarded in a moment of political selfishness, by a prime minister who plainly should have known far better – but didn’t.

Judith A Daniels

Norfolk

Sunak’s shameful D-Day performance sums up the past 14 years

Saturday’s editorial suggests, and with considerable justification, that Sunak’s shambolic performance at the D-Day service may have been the moment he lost the election. That blindingly insensitive indiscretion hit the public hard.

Our prime minister should have been standing shoulder to shoulder with the leaders of the free world in an especially poignant recognition of a time when, with steadfast courage and appalling human sacrifice, we united to defeat a dictator – and at a time when we face the militaristic rise of another. Instead, we were represented by a foreign secretary and ex-prime minister, with more political baggage than many find acceptable, hanging about outside the stage door. Our prime minister felt he had more valuable things to do in the service of his party.

The power of the moment lies in a very public confirmation of what the Tory party are really about. It is neither being in unity with the country and our allies nor acting in service of a free, healthy and prosperous society. In pursuit of those objectives, many of our countrymen and women lost their lives. Where is the land fit for heroes now? So much has been undone.

The fate of the Tory party is largely determined by their selfish and exploitative mismanagement of the country over many years. This most recent shameful behaviour underlines their motivations and “accomplishments”. Who would wish to follow them, their present leader, or any other leader of similar shallow disposition, into the difficult task of repairing the damages that they themselves have inflicted upon us?

These are not matters to be resolved by apology. They will be resolved by a comprehensive defeat in the forthcoming general election.

David Nelmes

Newport

The Conservatives are self-sabotaging

Who on earth is advising the Conservatives on their general election campaign strategy? More to the point, why on earth are Conservative politicians following this advice? The Tories’ inability to empathise with the electorate or even read the mood of the country has been, and continues to be, shockingly poor. We have seen this through their corrupt and self-interested factionalism whilst in power, their incompetence at almost every level, and the damage they have done to the people of this country, particularly the young.

When their campaign isn’t falling flat on its own face due to the many missteps they make, they resort to unseemly, unbalanced, and frankly irrelevant, attacks on Labour – often based on lies. The barely masked aggression they employ is unpleasant and the dwindling handful of genuine One Nation Conservative democrats must be in despair.

I have never supported them because of their deeply rooted self-interest and their callous policies, but I never expected them to expose their true faces so blatantly. Their whole approach to the election lacks authenticity, truth and empathy. They deserve to disappear.

David Lowndes

Southampton

If Rishi is so eager to leave early, perhaps we should let him

Sunak, “the man with a plan”, told us that the D-Day commemorations were planned well before he called the general election, which suggests to me that he always planned to duck out early and do something else instead of paying respect to those who secured our freedom, and to our international allies.

At the next leaders debate I hope Sunak is asked: will you stay to the end, or will you scuttle off home early?

Perhaps if he is so desperate to be elsewhere, he soon will be – when the people of the UK vote him out of office.

John Simpson

Address supplied