I represent a non-Quaker spiritual group with a longstanding arrangement to meet twice a week at the Westminster Quaker meeting house in London, from which building six female members of a youth protest group were recently arrested by means of violent forced entry (Report, 30 March).
A symptom often felt by people who are burgled is that their personal space has been invaded. When those who commit violence are those whose role is to protect us, it is doubly shattering. We were not present when the forced entry took place, yet the manner of it leaves us with a feeling of devastation and destruction of so much of what we have created. Of course it will be argued that the invasion of the space was a necessary evil, but I have to state with force that what we now suffer is real hurt, whereas the prevention of resistance in London is harm as yet not done.
While I have plenty of sympathy with the impossible, and quite likely painful, decision made by the police, places of real quiet and sanctuary are deeply needed in our society, and their invasion cannot be passed off as a necessary evil. Violence is violence, whoever commits it, and there is real loss here, real suffering, and real grief.
Colum Hayward
Barnes, London
• The fact that I am in the House of Lords is undoubtedly linked to attending a Quaker school for seven years, where the notions of public service, non-violence and a belief in community were a paramount theme running through school life and lessons. Quakers have been at the forefront of many radical changes for the better, such as abolition of slavery and prison reform. The Youth Demand members who were the subject of a police raid continue a tradition.
This Labour government must not continue down the repressive route of the last government. We must take the opportunity to roll back the excesses of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023.
Sue Miller
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
• I suggest that Youth Demand hold their next meeting in Canterbury Cathedral. The optics of the agents of the crown forcing their way into that place of worship might be too much, even in these benighted days.
Alastair Cameron
Edinburgh
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