The US and UK have shown an appalling lack of humanity over Harry Dunn's death

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Thursday 23 July 2020 13:27 BST
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Harry Dunn’s mother ‘emotional’ that diplomatic immunity loophole will be scrapped

As usual, the American government’s lack of understanding and humanity is unsurprising. We ought to do more than request Anna Sacoolas return to Britain to face serious driving charges.

The lack of humanity is appalling. There is a family who simply wants to know the truth of how Harry died but are left to rely on the “goodwill” of an American to return to Britain to face the music.

Neither Boris Johnson nor Dominic Raab have been of any use, as you would have expected. The Americans have refused to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and have denied Harry’s family any closure of his death.

By not offering to help the police, leaving, and then not returning to the UK, Ms Sacoolas has escalated the incident onto the world stage. She, and then the US government, have added to an already inflamed situation by refusing to cooperate with the British police.

If she had done the sensible thing and handed herself over to the UK police, given a statement of the incident and waited for a trial she would have defused all the subsequent trauma and the matter would be over so that Harry’s mother Charlotte Charles and family could start their grieving. But instead, no grieving can take place and no closure can be achieved because of the bad advice given to Ms Sacoolas and the intransigence of the US government.

It is morally wrong that neither Ms Sacoolas nor the US government has seen fit to help in bringing this incident to an end and give Harry Dunn’s family the closure that they deserve.

Keith Poole
Basingstoke

Cash for Scottish Tory votes

Boris Johnson splashing our cash in the devolved SNP dominated Scotland must be seen as trying to undermine the success of Nicola Sturgeon’s better handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and, disgracefully, to garner Conservative votes against a backdrop of opinion polls against Boris. That is a misuse of taxpayer’s money, for party political purposes and, personally, to bolster a flailing PM in Scottish voting. They will take our cash and vote to leave.

Stuart Wilkie
Kings Lynn

A mighty failure

Mr Johnson has said that the sheer “might” of the UK has been shown during the coronavirus pandemic, a declaration that he deemed suitable before his hopeful visit to Scotland. I guess in one sense it has – in that it has been found to be tragically absent. Mr Johnson repeatedly mistakes rhetoric for thought, policy or action. When, oh when, will Conservative MPs have the courage to put the country first?

Beryl Wall
London

Diplomacy matters

While the Intelligence and Security Committee report contends that Russia poses an urgent threat to British national security and democratic processes, little has been said about the importance of continued dialogue and diplomacy with Moscow. It is not necessary to support Vladimir Putin to concede that such dialogue is indeed vital. On numerous occasions, we have come close to war with several near misses in Syria and Eastern Europe. Russian Twitter bots and foreign language media channels have had a minimal impact on British political life. Yet, if this report serves to criminalise diplomacy and empower supporters of greater antagonism towards Russia, we will live with the consequences for a long time.

Grigory Matyunin
Address supplied

Another four years of Trump?

Having aced his test by knowing the difference between an elephant and a crocodile, though he may not be able to pronounce or spell either, the genius US president, with the most powerful military in the world, deserves a re-election in November. He can then happily and slowly drift into senility, playing golf even more often, supported by taxpayers money, while enriching his family business ever more. After all, it will only be another four years of entertaining early morning tweets to amuse and confuse. Unless, of course, he manages to change the constitution and have himself declared as emperor for life.

Come 2024, the next genius, Kanye West, will then be ready to finally rap us into oblivion. After Trump, he will be even more entertaining or bring a timely end to this species.

Gunter Straub
London

True leadership

The recent photos of Queen Elizabeth, aged 94 and Major, now Sir, Tom Moore who raised almost £33m for the NHS is a great example of what service to country and leadership means or should mean. What a pity these qualities are so rarely obvious with many of the world’s current leaders.

Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne, Australia

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