We could do with getting rid of some of Wimbledon’s ‘traditions’ – most of them are impractical anyway

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Tuesday 09 July 2019 17:23 BST
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So yesterday was “Manic Monday” at Wimbledon, but it is hard to understand why.

There were some top-class matches, but who’s watching tennis on the first day of the working week? The TV audience must be very low.

Why oh why was there no play on Sunday when the game can really reach out to the general public instead of hiding?

Judging by the deserted club and public tennis courts I saw yesterday while cycling, a change is desperately needed.

Wimbledon cannot survive without change and the game cannot survive without an audience. So come on take control, and introduce Sunday play please.

Colin Hollick
Hemel Hempstead

Re-thinking the special relationship

If there was a referendum on our relationship with the US, I would vote Leave without a moment’s hesitation.

William Barnes
Glastonbury

Donald Trump won’t deal with our ambassador. Why is it that Trump is permitted to attack Sadiq Khan in public but our ambassador can’t tell the truth about Trump in private?

Steve Hills
Milton Keynes

It’s difficult to believe a British ambassador to Washington would be so reckless as to refer to the current US president as “inept, insecure and incompetent” or describe the discord within the White House as akin to “knife fights”.

Today no “secret memo” is really secure, so why did Sir Kim Darroch express himself in such pejorative terms? His memos, drenched in colonial arrogance, have resulted in that ultimate diplomatic faux pas: he is now the issue!

John Cameron
St Andrews

Tommy Robinson’s great escape

I gather that Stephen “Tommy Robinson” Yaxley-Lennon is seeking refuge in the US, claiming he needs “evacuation from this country because dark forces are at work”.

He ought to have care where he tries to flee. Reports from the UK’s ambassador to the US suggest that dark forces are at work across the Atlantic.

Julian Self
Milton Keynes

Independent Minds Events: get involved in the news agenda

Another pointless debate

Why on earth is the BBC staging a head-to-head debate tonight between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt? This is a smokescreen attempt to make people feel as if they are fully involved in the choice between these two phonies when only 160,000 people can actually vote.

This is really too far. It’s manipulative, toxic and insulting.

T Maunder
Leeds

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