It appears that successive governments are able only to formulate key policies in the form of three-word phrases, usually absent of an executive subject. While I welcome the shift in focus represented by the switch from boats to gangs, it is surely evident that this is still only addressing the symptom, not the cause. Most of those arriving in small boats have come from countries either torn by ongoing conflict or ravaged by past conflict. To use the idiom of government, we need to stop the cause, stop the wars.
Sarah Mulholland
Goldsithney, Cornwall
• Surely the fact that “More than 50,000 people have crossed Channel in small boats since Labour took power” (12 August) must show that the country is worth living in?
Helen Keating
Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway
• With all the terrible news connected with Gaza, I was gulping to stop tears while reading the final message of the Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif (‘If these words reach you … Israel has succeeded in killing me’: the last words of a journalist killed in Gaza. 11 August).His article touched me as no other. I am not religious, but his love shines through all the pain and terror he has undergone.
Joan Mazumdar
Galmpton, Devon
• When journalists are bombed for reporting what they observe, the only conclusion we can draw is that truth has become the enemy (Global outrage mounts as funeral held for five journalists killed by Israel, 11 August).
Pete Lavender
Woodthorpe, Nottinghamshire
• Good Friday is always a non-gardening day in Maria Thun’s biodynamic gardening calendar (Letters, 11 August).
Stephen Bowden
St Cyr les Colons, France
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