Obese people aren’t making this pandemic worse, young people are. Why won’t the government do something about it?

Last week, the “big idea” was to force pensioners into lockdown. This week’s “big idea” is to force obese people into lockdown. What’s next week’s plan? Locking down the left-handed, blue-eyed people or black or Jewish people?

Meanwhile, the youth of the country are busy flocking to beaches, parks and our countrysides for massive drink and drug “rave” parties with a total disregard for social distancing or even the most basic hygiene, leaving trash and excrement everywhere they go.

When is the government going to stop these discriminatory stupidities and go to the heart of the problem? Young people are the ones they should be on lockdown, not the elderly, overweight or minorities who are well aware of the risk and, by and large, are doing everything they can to minimise them.

Or has the government become so arrogant that it thinks it can win the next election without the votes of its traditional supporters? Believe me, if they think that, they have a very nasty surprise coming at election time.

Ian McNicholas
Ebbw Vale, Wales

So, apparently it is a crime now to drive a Yorkshire registered vehicle in London (Dawn Butler: Labour MP accuses Metropolitan Police of racial profiling after being stopped by officers). It seems to me that this is just a pathetic excuse to hide behind to justify their racial profiling. There needs to be much more accountability from the police.

David McKirdy
Address supplied

Are police cars not fitted with automatic number plate recognition?

The Metropolitan Police statement on the Dawn Butler stop makes “the dog ate my homework” an excuse of imaginative genius.

Chris King
London N3

Have we lost compassion and humanity as a nation? (‘Inappropriate and disproportionate’: Priti Patel suggestion to use navy to combat migrant crossings attacked by MoD).

Anyone with a conscience should feel empathy for desperate refugees who have been exploited just to get on a boat here. The late AA Gill nailed it in his 2013 Sunday Times article “Welcome to Death Island”:

“They are already victims, most in ways that sear you with pity and shock ... journeys far more intrepid and dangerous than climbing a mountain ... some of the poorest people in the world, who leave their villages, communities, cultures and families, knowing, in all likelihood, they will never see them again.”

Clearly, as Gill wrote in The Australian in 2015: “The one thing the refugees and the Europeans agree on is that Europe is a place of freedom, fairness and safety. It turns out that one of us is mistaken and the other is lying.”

Mike Bor
London, W2

I was not a bit surprised to read Rob Merrick’s article today (Brexit: Boris Johnson’s promise of lucrative trade deals in trouble, study warns) because this gung-ho and buccaneering strategy, largely spearheaded by that faction the ERG in government, that the world and its wife would be queueing up to trade with us.

Admittedly, in the interest of fairness, they couldn’t have foreseen that a pandemic would stymie matters. But it is the government’s utter disregard that is ultimately to blame. It could have extended the transition period and abjectly failed to do so.

So we are where we are, touting our begging bowl around the rest of the world with the sign: “Please sir, give us a good trade deal” above our heads. The Institute for Government think tank is correct, this has been a naive strategy all along, given substance by arrogant and short-sighted thinking. The government needs to wake up fast and appreciate that our standing in the world is not as powerful or pivotal as they consider it to be and make the necessary adjustments.

Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth

After hearing of the devastating explosion in Beirut, many British politicians have expressed concerns that it will make Lebanese lives, already devastated by war and government corruption, worse. However, the £252m PPE contract awarded to a company owned with links to an adviser who also worked for the Department for International Trade, with no experience making personal protective equipment (PPE) and only £100 in assets, seemingly shows corruption closer to home.

The revelation that 50 million of the masks so-far produced under this contract cannot be used is no surprise and reflects the incompetence of some who have been given contracts. Starmer’s call for an inquiry is a start, but this issue goes beyond PPE.

With such figures at the heart of government, how can we ever trust them to look beyond their own self-interest? What is the point of one if not to protect the people it serves?

Last election, the majority of the British public entrusted the government with our most precious democratic possession – our votes. How has this trust been repaid? How are our NHS workers, who need this PPE as they continue to sacrifice their lives with no pay rise, repaid? With politicians who exploit our national suffering for a profit.

Juliet Rose
Staffordshire