My father was proud to fight in the war, have we forgotten the values he fought for?

Looking at all the various articles about the march at the weekend, and the poisonous confected outrage and attempt to whip up hatred and division by the likes of Suella Braverman and the pro-Tory media ecosystem, I can’t help but think of my dad, who died 10 years ago. He was a pilot in the RAF from 1939 through to 1945, the first six years of his twenties.

He was also a Catholic, although he believed more in generic Christian values like compassion, tolerance and treating everyone as a fellow human being, regardless of who they were. He felt this was what the war was ultimately all about, and what he had proudly fought for. He also hated the pomp and ceremony around Remembrance Sunday, as he felt it had been hijacked by politicians for their own glorification, politicians who would send young men to war to suit their purpose, but treat them with neglect and contempt in peacetime.

When we discussed the intractable problem of Israel and Palestine, it was to understand the complexity of the issue, and deplore the extremists on both sides. I know, because I knew him, that he would think the march should go ahead, not because he would necessarily have chosen to go on it, but because freedom of speech is what he fought for.

Whatever happens, I will be thinking of him on Sunday and wondering why his values no longer matter to so many people in politics and parts of the media.

John Murray

Bracknell

It is truly appalling to learn that 12 years after the Winterbourne View scandal exposed the abuse many people with learning disabilities and autism face in care, these practices still continue in some institutions.

Back then, the government had promised that over the next decade, people inappropriately detained in either private or NHS hospitals and social care settings would be reassessed and transferred to community placements. Including, in some cases, returning to their families. That timescale has long since passed and yet thousands remain detained or “warehoused” far from home, often at eye-watering costs charged by for-profit private providers with little incentives to move them on.

As Mencap’s landmark report, “Death by Indifference” first revealed, the failure to both properly establish and fund community-based alternatives has cost lives, widened inequalities, and taken away fundamental rights that the rest of us take for granted.

Paul Dolan

Cheshire

This weekend’s Remembrance Sunday in London is ironically at risk of being marred with conflict. Dog whistling from various quarters is wracking up tensions on what should be a reverent, respectful remembrance time; reflecting on those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the hope of protecting freedoms and democracy. Rights of association, assembly and speech are important parts of those freedoms.

Politicians, of various parties, and in many parts of the world, would benefit from spending more time promoting cooperative endeavours instead of hollowing-out debates for short-term, parochial gain. The First World War, where the poppy symbol comes from, was an era where tensions were wracked up by those in power and simple, sorry sparks had devastating consequences.

Cooperation always conquers conflict.

Neil McLennan

Address Supplied

So Humza Yousaf has been accused of misleading the Scottish parliament...

Opposition parties question his claim to have first been asked to provide WhatsApp messages to the UK Covid inquiry in September when it appears evident that the request was first made in November 2022. But what will be done about this?

Perhaps we’ll have another futile Holyrood committee inquiry. And the majority SNP committee will reach its, of course, entirely impartial and unbiased, so pathetically inevitable conclusion.

Martin Redfern

Melrose Roxburghshire