The Supreme Court is now tainted with the virus of Trumpism – we'll see injustices for years to come

Unable to effectively blunt the damaging testimony of Dr Ford and sensing their beer-drinking (alleged) sexual predator’s nomination slipping away, Trump and his morally bankrupt posse of bullies went on the attack.

At a Mississippi campaign rally, Trump mocked Dr Ford’s credulity, regaling the crowd with his cruel taunts.

Sadly, the FBI investigation turned out to be a complete sham, narrow in its scope with tight parameters established by the White House. It was designed to be a spectacle and fail. Key witnesses were ignored, as well as 2,400 law professors who opposed Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

The degrading era of Kavanaugh’s service on the Supreme Court lies ahead.

Justice Kavanaugh will now join his “twin” Clarence Thomas, both forever tainted by dishonesty, shamelessness and hostility to the welfare and wellbeing of women.

The virus of Trumpism is about to infect the Supreme Court for decades to come.

Jagjit Singh
California

The confirmation of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh came after weeks of bloodletting in the US Senate and global media. Temperatures and voices raised to fever pitch, and protesters were arrested in and around the Senate and Supreme Court Buildings in Washington, DC.

Democratic Party supporters promise that a “Blue Wave” will engulf the USA after next month’s midterm congressional elections, hoping to regain power in at least the House of Representatives, and threatening to impeach both President Trump and Justice Kavanaugh. Of course, any other legislation or reasonable discourse will be a thing of the past; unmitigated anger will still rule of the day, as Democratic supporters are convinced that they were badly mistreated by the razor-thin Republican Senate majority.

There is an awful irony to this whole tawdry and highly partisan affair, and Democrats need only look back to 1998 when impeachment hearings were brought against President Bill Clinton. The House of Representatives, led by Republican speaker Newt Gingrich, had voted to impeach the president for lying under oath and obstructing justice.

This followed years of lurid and highly publicised investigations by special counsel Ken Starr, who had submitted his findings in 18 boxes of documents containing no fewer than 11 grounds for impeachment. The Senate trial of Bill Clinton lasted about a month in early 1999, and he was acquitted on both articles of impeachment, as rules required a two-thirds majority.

Democrats breathed a sigh of relief, after the nation’s business had been put on hold for so long by countless allegations and testimonies of players like Monica Lewinski, Linda Tripp, Paula Jones and a vast supporting cast. Republicans sulked, and promised revenge. Today that revenge is quite evident, as the circus goes around and around in Washington with Democrats now screaming blue bloody murder.

They are the very same people who supported Hillary Clinton just two years ago, and found it convenient to shelve and ignore Bill Clinton’s tawdry sexual history when the #MeToo Movement was formed last year. Ironically, a Clinton aide called Paul Begala first coined the phrase “Washington is Hollywood for ugly people”, and he’s dead right!

Bernie Smith
Parksville, Canada

Does Theresa May seriously think that just because people don’t like Jeremy Corbyn they are going to vote Conservative? If so, she is deluded.

Most of the votes of the disaffected will be mopped up by the Lib Dems, the Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and independents. Some would simply rather not vote at all.

Swapping one ideologically intolerant party for another is like trading in a smack in the face for a kick in the teeth.

Mark Edmondson
Lancaster

Nicola Sturgeon has said that her party would back a People’s Vote and even a new referendum if Brexit remains the mess it has been since June 2016.

Under the circumstances she has the absolute moral, social and political right to both of those positions.

Unfortunately, she may not have the power to turn the tanker as it heads to the rocks and the weary, weary public may not have the appetite for the necessary fight.

If the last few months and even days have taught us anything it is that power is more embedded than ever in the hands of the venal and corrupt, the sexual predators, racists, homophobes, jingoists, xenophobes, liars, privileged, fraudulent, aggressively self-serving, deceitful and uncaring.

This is true in Westminster and even more so across the pond in the country that was supposed to be our best buddy and possibly partly fill our soon-to-come EU trade hole. Instead, in the White House, is the hideous manifestation of all those things mentioned above plus global tariffs and protectionism.

There could not have been a worse time to unhitch ourselves from Europe.

The deceit that Scotland could only stay in the EU by voting No in the 2014 referendum (The Scottish Lie) has never seemed dirtier.

Never mind The Scottish Play – The Scottish Lie is much darker and politically bloody.

Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

However Theresa May might choose to refer to it, she is sticking to her Chequers plan for Brexit which the EU has long said is not workable because it is incompatible with the four pillars of the single market. At the same time, she demands more respect from the EU for her idea. Why? Respect has to be earned, not demanded, and Jeremy Hunt did nothing to help the cause this week with his ignorant remarks.

Meanwhile her government helpfully continues to publish its position papers warning of the risks of and likely outcomes from a no-deal Brexit, while blindly insisting it still can make a deal.

Reading these, it is obvious that no one in their right mind would undertake a course of action where these outcomes might actually materialise; these scenarios are only what many have been saying for some time now. The bottom line is that whatever “deal” might be agreed it will not – and by definition cannot – be as advantageous to the UK economy or national infrastructure as continuing membership of the single market and customs union.

Even with a “deal”, our trade in goods with the EU will be impeded at best, and our trade in services robbed of all concessions; those business leaders and economists do actually know what they are talking about, unlike our fantasy-land politicians. Let us remember that none of the Brexiteers has yet shown us how their vision might produce something better than what we have today.

Meanwhile, Chris Key’s article on Friday reminded us of the softer benefits of EU membership which will be denied to UK citizens and which has largely been ignored in the rabid debate on free movement which has focused one-sidedly on incomers. And from Denmark, Morten Helveg Petersen’s advice (Saturday) is wise and deserves careful and considered reflection.

That still leaves May’s statement that she is determined to get the “best deal for Britain”. Or does she in fact mean the UK, including Northern Ireland? Does she really understand what she is trying to achieve? All that analysis should have been done before Article 50 was triggered as a measured consideration of the right steps to take, but we are way too late for that now.

On the evidence currently available, the best deal for the UK, its people and its four constituent nations (two of which voted Remain, let’s not forget) has to be to remain in the EU. And whatever the complaints about the way the EU is run, 21st-century UK will be stronger inside than on its own outside.

Now that we understand more of what leaving would mean, and whatever any deal might be, we the people must have the option to choose between that deal and staying. The 2016 referendum was advisory only (that’s what David Cameron told us), and with more knowledge we are entitled now to make our own minds up on the specifics. It would be a betrayal of democracy not to give that choice to the people; this is a decision with huge long-term national consequences, but right now it is being driven by politicians and their very short-term personal agendas.

Let’s push hard for the People’s Vote.

Charles Wood
Birmingham

Having watched Brandon Lewis successfully and cleverly fail to answer every question put to him on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, I am now convinced that it was really Paul Merton doing a very comical impression of what it takes to be a politician nowadays.

Patrick Cosgrove
Shropshire