Will Smith struck a blow for decency – award shows are too full of crass jokes

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

The presenters of shows like the Oscars and Baftas seem to be chosen for their ability to tell risque jokes (PA)

I consider Will Smith to have struck a moral blow for decency.

The presenters of shows like the Oscars and Baftas seem to be chosen for their ability to tell risque jokes and make crass and personal remarks, so that they can be proclaimed the star of the proceedings.

Please let us have somebody presenting who cares about film or theatre or music, and makes culture the focus.

Robert Murray

Nottingham

If all the circumstances of the assault, including the provocation, had been the same and Will Smith had been white, a question remains.

Would the star-studded crowd have given him a standing ovation?

Edward Thomas

Eastbourne

War crimes and double standards

Rafeef Ziadah makes a powerful case for more fairness in media reporting of Ukraine and Palestine.

The unforgivable attack by Putin’s Russian Federation is rightly condemned for its wicked targeting of innocent Ukrainians, and there is much discussion – justifiably, in my view – of Putin’s criminality. Notable among his accusers is President Biden. It’s perhaps timely to consider how innocent other nations may be in the area of war guilt.

Israeli assaults, dispossessions, and victimisation of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza seems to go unnoticed, with only silence from their American friends. Let’s not forget US war plane attacks on innocent civilians in Iraq, which we only know about because of Julian Assange’s brave reporting. It seems likely that his reward will be many years in an American prison.

And let’s not forget the mass executions of Saudi citizens – apparently guilty of such heinous crimes as disagreeing with the ruling Saudi royal family – by Boris Johnson’s new best mate, the crown prince. Again, Uncle Sam doesn’t seem to have a problem maintaining relations with Saudi Arabia.

Putin should be prosecuted for his evil criminality, but a few others should perhaps think about their own record while they’re at it.

Patrick Moore

Taverham, Norwich

Solar panels

I was somewhat perplexed by Donnachadh McCarthy’s column, as it seems to imply that we must follow the writer’s instructions, in this country where supposedly, the people are free, unlike in Russia.

Should Donnachadh McCarthy be so kind as to send me a cheque for £15,000, I would be very happy to install solar panels on my 200-year-old terrace house, whose roof would require substantial structural modifications to make it safe to do so, as my state pension would not stretch to this.

Ian McNicholas

Ebbw Vale

The inevitability of death and bereavement

I read Harriet Williamson’s empathetic column with agreement, although hopefully people do not now avoid bereaved friends with spurious excuses like: “I just didn’t know what to say.” It behoves us all to reach out to others in extremis and suffering terribly.

But death is still a taboo subject and she is right, death is all around us, especially now with ghastly war-torn areas such as Ukraine and Syria. We are exposed to calamitous numbers of the dead on a daily basis, and we do find our minds drifting elsewhere.

It is still numbing and distressing on a personal basis too, as she so clearly states, and we all still tread a wary, conflicted dance around it.

Death and grief are inevitable and people should be given time and space to come to terms with its ravages, but in our vastly hurried world today men, women and children are expected to “just get on with it” and this can cause untold harm.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment, sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

There are no shortcuts, just a final acceptance and a moving on when the time is absolutely right. This can’t be dictated by anyone else except ourselves, and hopefully with the aid, if necessary, of compassionate help and advice.

Judith A Daniels

Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

Sir Gavin Williamson

Nadhim Zahawi defended the knighthood of Gavin Williamson by saying he had played an important part in the introduction of the T-levels.

As Williamson was only put in place 12 months before these courses started, he would have had little involvement in their design or implementation, most of which had been completed by 2017.

So, Zahawi’s explanation suggests that he has little grasp of the complexity of introducing new courses, and is in fact as clueless as his predecessor on all matters of education. The alternative view that Williamson got his knighthood because he knows “where the bodies are buried” is much more plausible.

A Sutton

York