The right to protest is a fundamental part of our democracy – it must not be taken away

Rishi Sunak’s insidious use of the word “mob” to describe large protests is very worrying.  Perhaps I, as a resident of a quiet village in Oxfordshire, cannot judge but news coverage of the protests surrounding the crisis in Gaza has shown large but orderly crowds, not violent mobs.

The increasing technique of routinely branding protests as mobs, or mob rule, is very worrying. Of course, the threatening of politicians, or anyone else, is wholly wrong but we should be very much on our guard about our democratic right to protest, an absolutely fundamental part of democracy.

We must recognise the strategy behind the cunning conflation of a “mob” with ordinary citizens who are sufficiently concerned about an issue to join a protest in the hope of drawing attention to a cause, and having some influence over events.

Penny Little

Oxfordshire

The only mob that this country should get rid of is Rishi Sunak and his Tory party – the sooner the election comes, and the sooner Sunak can retreat to the financial world in the US, we’ll be all the better for it.

Sunak and his gang have done everything to stop the show of sympathy for Palestinians, and won’t use their voice to call for a ceasefire at the UN.

Now they are sending the police out on the streets, to stop British people showing their disgust at this government.

Barry M Watson

Doncaster

The UN says a quarter of Gazans are now facing famine. Palestinian supporters and human rights activists around the world are quite understandably frustrated and even angry about so many nations’ political inertia.

Yet without doubt, growing Western indifference towards the mass starvation and slaughter of helpless Palestinian civilians will only further delay any resolution, and likely inflame long-held anger towards us.  Particularly when we consider some country’s actual provision, mostly by the US, of highly effective weapons used in Israel’s onslaught, it isn’t hard to see how anger could turn into lasting hatred.

Meanwhile, with each news report of the daily Palestinian death toll from unrelenting Israeli bombardment, I feel a slightly greater desensitization and resignation. I’ve noticed this disturbing effect with basically all major protracted conflicts internationally, including presently in Ukraine. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this.

Frank Sterle Jr

White Rock

The Conservatives must be a busted flush if they’re seriously considering scrapping the non-dom regime, particularly if this is simply to fund tax cuts elsewhere.

This announcement comes in a time of desperation for the Conservatives, who are targeting low-hanging fruit in a futile bid to salvage their electoral prospects. Despite the grandstanding, the fact remains that the non-dom regime is a generally beneficial provision that attracts wealthy foreigners to the UK.

The non-dom regime does need reform, and the remittance basis rules are complicated and inefficient, to say the least. They obviously incentivise keeping money out of the UK economy. However, this doesn’t appear to be why Jeremy Hunt is considering this move.

While the Conservatives have to try to appeal to the red wall, this should not be how they do it. They likely do not know how much this would actually raise and whether it would be worth the potentially huge downside as non-doms flee or opt not to relocate to the UK in the first place.

There is an important discussion to be had about who the UK should be trying to attract, and how best to go about that – but short-sighted policy fuelled by electoral desperation is no solution.

Whether they have announced this merely to gauge sentiment or it’s actually a reality is much the same thing – the Conservatives are dead and buried, both politically and economically. We will now usher in a Labour Party which is almost indistinguishable from them.

Miles Dean

London