Why are the Tories hell-bent on destroying the NHS?

The Tories are obviously hastening to complete their privatisation of the NHS before the next election (NHS waiting lists) and trying to make reversing the process as difficult and expensive as possible. Brexit will magnify the problem greatly, too.

Why do the Tories so delight in destruction and regression? Where is the virtue in policies that ensure the growth of unmet need?

When was the last time that a Tory government did anything positively, actively constructive – other than in the South East?

Steve Ford
Haydon Bridge

Greens have been calling for mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses for decades and the UK's membership of the EU has never prevented the introduction of the measure – France introduced it earlier this year. So, while the Government's announcement is welcome – albeit long, long overdue – the pitching of the policy as a “post-Brexit reform” is cynical and opportunistic nonsense.

As for the policy itself, the devil is in the detail and we've yet to see any. To help prevent the cruellest and most pitiless treatment of UK farm animals the Government needs, as a minimum, to ensure cameras are placed in any area of a slaughterhouse where animals are handled, held and killed. The footage must also be held for a reasonable length of time and made available for independent viewing and monitoring.

At the same time, urgent steps are needed to improve and monitor on farm animal welfare standards, too. At the very least, the Government must urgently ensure existing EU safeguards are strengthened and maintained. The House of Lords EU committee warned only last month that leaving the EU and rushing to sign Britain up to post-Brexit “free trade at all cost” deals will pose the biggest threat to farm animal welfare in the UK.

Ultimately, it's also worth remembering that no amount of legislation or regulation can ever make the slaughter business truly cruelty-free.

Keith Taylor
Green Party MEP for the South East

How refreshing to read something sensible at last about Corbyn's reaction to the recent crisis in Venezuela, by Mary Dejevsky. Of course he was being set up by the right to "divert attention from the two main parties divisions over Brexit", and no matter what his response was, the Labour leader would be criticised.

What makes this so typical of the right's behaviour in politics currently is that little or no demands are made of Theresa May to denounce the atrocities committed every day by her allies in the Middle East or for her to pressurise the Saudis into stopping the bombing of Yemen.

Venezuela has, as Dejevsky says, provided the UK media "with a stick to beat Corbyn with", but the many opportunities offered by May's flirting with the likes of Trump and Erdogan are ignored. Sasha Simic's letter rightly stated that the media should be working to insist May tone down Trump's bellicose outbursts, but as she doesn't even keep her own Foreign Secretary sufficiently under control, there is no chance of her being a force for peace anywhere.

Bernie Evans
Liverpool

The Cotswolds’ villagers may indeed be shocked after DNA tests show they are less than 50 per cent British. But I think they should tell Nigel Farage. And they should also tell Russell James of AncestryDNA. He need not be deceived by the village’s “typical England look and feel”.

As the DNA data proves, “typical England” and “Britishness through and through” is a composite of diverse heritage we should all be proud of. It’s only the isolationists failure to recognise the reality of who we are that deceives us.

Gary Wiltshire
Norfolk

So Tony Blair had a brief affair with Trotsky's ideas? Isn't that something! In no way does this sound like a desperate attempt at being hip: "I was like Corbyn too you know, only I grew up you see and got real."

David Murphy
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