Our government is blinded by an obsession that is morally repugnant

The government’s continuing refusal to offer asylum to the Afghan pilot shows how much ministers have become blinded by their obsession with morally repugnant policy.

When Afghanistan was abandoned, the UK (and their allies) gave assurances to assist those who had worked with them and who would be in danger from the Taliban. How exactly the pilot arrived on our shores is irrelevant; the real issue at stake here is the value of a promise made by the UK. If we break our promises and threaten to treat people like he is being treated, then we can expect little assistance in the future when we might need it.

This pilot, and all others in a similar situation, deserve to be treated with respect, integrity, and humanity and in accordance with promises made. I am ashamed to be associated with the “values” that the government is prioritising in this case.

Charles Wood

Birmingham

It was refreshing to hear Jacob Rees-Mogg candidly admit that the introduction of photo ID for the recent local elections turned out to be a gerrymandering tactic that backfired on the Tories.

Might the nation, and the society at large, also benefit from another example of the law of unintended consequences being used for good effect? Is it possible to fantasise that the new powers given to police to prevent demonstrators from using lock-on devices, stopping them from disrupting the lives of ordinary people during their protests, could be redirected to a source of even greater and potentially even more persistent harm? I’m thinking about the possibility of a citizen’s arrest being used on those who have obviously set out with an agenda to not only hamper the economy, but disrupt and diminish the lives of ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

There seems to be a cabal of what can only be described as power-hungry individuals, who unashamedly relish the opportunity to extol the excessive extremes of what used to be known as the Conservative Party.

For these individuals have obviously “locked on” to what ordinary citizens would describe as perverse ideology, to appeal to those for whom their visions make some sort of sense and seek to maintain them in office.

The privatisation schemes that have already proven disastrous for the rail networks. The private water companies that have paid out in dividends the money that should have been used to replace the Victorian sewage systems. The misselling of the so-called benefits of Brexit, including a year-on-year diminishment of the economy. The NHS service, once the envy of the world, and now seemingly brought to the brink of failure, in readiness no doubt for the saving grace of privatisation to “rescue” the service at the eleventh hour. The underfunded state education system forced to perform with ever-diminishing resources. The broken judicial system, the numerous Home Office failures, and the pernicious politicisation of the refugee crisis.

A litany of failures that feel endless!

These highly disruptive, nay havoc-causing individuals are easily identifiable by the twisted logic that they use. These are the tools by which they “lock on” to their concocted false premises. Premises that their power base has been programmed to want to hear.

The rights of ordinary citizens, are currently under severe and persistent threat from the extreme right-wing narrative. Their “visions”, disguised as plausible solutions, are designed to distract attention away from their previous authorship, which has contributed to the progressive downfall and diminishment of our once-proud nation.

Nigel Plevin

Address Supplied

In her speech to the National Conservatism conference, home secretary Suella Braverman attacked immigrants traveling to the UK and insisted that they have placed an unsustainable strain on the UK’s infrastructure.

But it isn’t migrants who have placed a strain on the country’s infrastructure – it’s 13 years of brutal Tory public sector cuts.

The NHS, to take just one example, couldn’t function without the contribution of migrants. Migrants held the NHS together through the pandemic and paid a disproportionally high price for their service. The UK owes migrants a debt of gratitude, not Braverman’s hostility.

Braverman – herself a child of a refugee and economic migrants – has nothing to offer politically apart from anti-immigrant hate.

Sasha Simic

London

Steve Mckinder’s recent letter to The Independent resonates with my thoughts. However, to house more people we need to alter our infrastructure to build housing and workplaces where we have land, rather than squeeze people into ever-decreasing parcels of land. Why not use the vast acres unused in the middle of, say, Yorkshire, Wales, or along safe coastal regions?

Builders and established companies would have to be incentivised in order to attract people to populate the new towns. The government would have to be more proactive than at present – that can’t be hard to achieve – taking the long view of housing and employment.

Unfortunately, the present government, with its 13 years of totally inadequate management, has caused the lack of housing we are currently experiencing – and it is coming back to bite them.

There is no easy remedy to the housing shortage but a determined government with a long-term plan can and will make a difference, with the knee-jerk, reactionary government we have there is no chance of any solution.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke