Theresa May’s only aim is to keep the Conservative Party together at all costs

Those who say Theresa May doesn’t have a plan for Brexit are completely wrong. May has had a plan from the outset and she has rigorously followed it, come what may.

Her plan is simply to keep the Tory party together. Nothing else matters and nothing else will ever intrude on it. It is why she is so captivated by every utterance of the right-wing ideologues and why she appeases them every time.

John Harvey
Bristol

I am great supporter of the BBC for also sorts of reasons, but it strikes me as very odd that over the past few days neither the rolling TV news, nor the Today programme, nor Newsnight have in my hearing even mentioned en passant that tomorrow we are expecting one of the biggest political demonstrations ever in central London.

Are all the staff in the BBC’s huge news and current affairs operation (including even the weather forecasters!) under strict instructions not to mention the march because that would seem to show bias? In this endless Brexit debate, the BBC has nevertheless given airtime to some of the most divisive voices in public life today.

The size of the march on Saturday, with the growing numbers supporting the big parliamentary petition, may have a significant impact on the views of MPs in next week’s debates. The BBC should have been talking about it well before the actual day of the event.

Gavin Turner
Gunton

I’m relieved that the Royal College of Physicians has voted for a neutral stance on doctor-assisted dying.

In opinion polls in Britain, around 82 per cent say they are in favour of medical help to die for terminally ill patients in great pain who request it. Doctors intervene in all stages of life, carrying out heart transplants and IVF – so why can’t they use their skills to bring about a peaceful death at the end of life, if this is the patient’s wish?

Experts say palliative care needs an overhaul as some patients suffer great pain at the end of life. Relatives can remain traumatised after seeing their loved one suffer so much. Increasing numbers of countries allow it, including parts of US, Australia, Canada, Europe and even Guernsey.

I believe that many people would enjoy their lives more if they didn’t have the fear that they may one day suffer a long, painful and undignified death. Many of us don’t want our close family to see us in such a condition. We must stop seeing death as always being a failure and allow people to be released from suffering, if this is their choice.

Attitudes change. It was once believed that pain relief in childbirth was a sin, until Queen Victoria requested it for her births – then it became acceptable.

A Wills
Ruislip

Past efforts to resolve the proven conflict between hen harriers and grouse moors, with diversionary feeding and legislation, have failed. Adam Lusher’s suggestion of making landowners legally liable for their employees’ actions is little better because they already are.

The 10-year Langholm Moor study shows that we should test other solutions to resolve the conflict, such as actively managing harrier broods, to ensure they thrive alongside economic grouse moors. This is important for our harriers because, in the words of the RSPB, the “management of land for grouse shooting has protected upland areas from the worst of over-grazing and blanket conifer plantations whilst generating income for upland communities and forming a uniquely British form of cultural land use”.

Andrew Gilruth​
Director of communications, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust

What a brilliant idea by Mark Steel to propose Brexit as an Alice in Wonderland fantasy. We think you need to run it as a serial, with the cast chosen by your readers. For starters, may we suggest the following?

Cheshire Cat: got to be Boris Johnson (all smile, no substance).

David Davis is similarly nailed on as the dormouse.

While it is very tempting to imagine playing croquet with an inverted Rees-Mogg, we suspect he will be better as the Mad Hatter.

Mark Francois always suggests an invertebrate, so maybe the caterpillar? Difficult to imagine him turning into a beautiful butterfly though.

And what about the Farage? Well as the initiator of the whole mad sequence, leading poor Alice deeper into his mad world, we think he has to be the White Rabbit.

David and Jill Hill
Elsenham

Your recent article was wrong in describing Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) as the “only Jewish Labour group”. Jewish Voice for Labour is a membership organisation set up in 2017. They vigorously debate claims of antisemitism by Jeremy Corbyn and in the Labour Party, and put a lot of effort into producing properly sourced and evidenced comment and news items that qualify and indeed refute many of these claims. Readers who would like to access and understand the plurality of Jewish views on the topic should visit their informative website.

Nicola Grove
Address supplied