By inviting Mohammad bin Salman to the UK, Theresa May has made a mockery of democracy

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Theresa May and Mohammad bin Salman (AFP/Getty)

The term “democracy is the voice of the people” is a repeated rubbish which we are forced to believe. The reality is quite the contrary.

While the masses are objecting to the Saudi Crown Prince’s visit to the UK, the Government is paying nil attention to the will of the people. Same thing happened during the Iraq War.

The will of the people is nothing but an illusion. It is like the bedtime story we read on our kids in order to make them fall asleep. The Government uses the same tactic to put us in deep slumber. They use it as a drug to make us believe in illusions.

While the masses are demonstrating on the streets, government officials are demonstrating their arrogance and going ahead with their Draconian plans to sell arms and exchange smiles while saying to hell with human right issues.

Shame.

Abubakar Kasim
Toronto

The fight against violence towards women doesn’t stop when IWD ends

International Women’s Day has again passed unnoticed like any other day. It is tragic that the depth of the wounds afflicting women that established this day in the early 1900s still exist today. Women and girls are poorly treated in many corners around the globe; they suffer existing injustices and the heavy burdens of poverty, unemployment, gender stereotyping, discrimination, maternal mortality, domestic violence, forced and early marriages, sexual abuse, harassment, human trafficking and female genital mutilation and unequal pay gaps.

We have seen how women are sexually exploited even in conflict zones in exchange for aid. It is time to renew our unflinching resolve to whip up the afflictions that still blight women’s lives.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob
London NW2

We need to drum up hundreds of trade deals post-Brexit

The three main points in the Brexit argument in 2016 were: first, the EU would give us a good deal because it needed to trade with us more than we needed to trade with it; second, the rest of the world was eager to sign new deals with us; and third, we would have a bigger role on the world stage.

At the time I doubted any of the above was true. Now it is obvious that the power players we depend on to sustain this fantasy, from the EU to the US to the foreign companies investing here, will act in their own interests and that we no longer have the heft to seriously fight our own corner.

Theresa May bet the house on Trump’s casual remark that he’d give us a “great deal”. The reality is he has offered our airlines a substantially worse deal than the one they have at present with our EU membership. We must renegotiate 700 such trading deals with other nations. That will be a neat trick!

Rev Dr John Cameron
St Andrews

We need to change our attitude towards women

For a whole raft of reasons, over my 45-year working life, I’ve had 12 jobs. For three of those I was my own boss, because I was running my own companies. For the others, I’ve been lucky enough to have three outstanding bosses, two of whom were women.

We need so many more women at the top of industry and government. To be blunt, they could knock the spots of most of the men I’ve worked for. We need a dramatic shift in our opinion of women to make sure we as a nation are putting our best foot forward.

Steve Mumby
Bournemouth

Bradley Wiggins

Hypocrisy. Adjective. MPs advising professional sports people about overstepping moral boundaries.

John Phillips
Suffolk

Don’t take free travel away from older generations

I have just read your article about taxing wealth (The only way Philip Hammond can ward off Labour is with a wealth tax – but the Tories won’t like it) and in particular the older generation. I am a baby boomer and I do own my own house. My husband and I are helping our youngest adopted daughter and her two children to improve their situation and I guess many people like us are doing the same.

While I do agree in principal, I think to take away free travel would be self defeating. It helps people to keep healthy and can prevent social isolation. I would say keep this benefit, but other benefits could go. If taxes increased and free travel went, you would have many more older people isolated and see an increase in mental and physical illnesses for this group.

Name and address supplied