In his 1871 novel The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope says of the London police that “the force had been spoken of as drones and moles and ostriches. They were idle and blind, and so stupid as to think that, when they saw nothing, others saw less.” Plus ça change (Civil servants and No 10 advisers furious over single fine for Boris Johnson, 19 May).
Brenda Gregg
Kardamyli, Greece
• In declaring that Boris Johnson “just rewrote the script”, is Sir Charles Walker MP trying to match Winston Churchill’s euphemistic reference to terminological inexactitude (Don’t condemn just our lying PM: save some anger for the cowards who enabled him, 20 May)?
Geoff Reid
Bradford
• Thank you for keeping hope alive (Partygate: five lurking threats that could still damage Boris Johnson, 20 May).
Maggie Dalton
Market Weighton, East Yorkshire
• Wasn’t Israel supposed to become “a light unto the nations” on its establishment in 1948? Now, the UN human rights commissioner refers to its “culture of impunity” (Israel will not hold criminal inquiry into killing of journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, 19 May).
Ya’ir Klein
London
• So Grantham Museum, with its exhibition dedicated to Thatcher, is “just a stone’s throw” from the statue of the person responsible for the idea that greed and an uncaring attitude to those less fortunate were political virtues (Margaret Thatcher’s statue splits birthplace of Grantham, 22 May)? Sounds about right.
Brian Smith
Berlin, Germany
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