Letter to the I: Trump Letter

With regard to David Mazza's letter he is unfairly allowing Donald Trump to operate by double standards.  When terrorist attacks were perpetrated by Islamist extremists during the Obama Administration, he publicly called on Obama to resign unless he cited specifically "Radical Islamists" as responsible.  I agree with Mazza that extremist violence is unacceptable whichever source it comes from, but that is not the issue.  The issue is that Trump's earlier comments were a shameless attempt at identity politics to rally those who dislike anything remotely connected to Islam.  His recent comments were likely tactically shaped since many of his supporters have much in common with the terrorist in this attack.

Regards

Zachary Barker

Letter to the I: Corbyn and Venezuela

With regards to Steven McNamara's letter, he seems to be deflecting the issue of Venezuela to give cover to Corbyn.  Instead of addressing the issue over whether Corbyn was wrong to support Venezuela's Government, he randomly changed the subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.  As a man of principle who once claimed that it is everyone's right to fight oppression, surely Corbyn should be supporting the protestors against the government?  If Corbyn and his supporters want to embody the New Politics of honesty, I don't think reverting to the Old Politics way of avoiding answers to difficult and embarrassing questions is credible.

Regards

Zachary Barker

Letter to the I: North Korea Letter

I very much doubt that US President Donald Trump's recent blood curdling threats to North Korea will do much to change their position.  China's support is mainly responsible for allowing North Korea to whether successive sanctions.  They support North Korea because they fear a collapse of the country will result in an occupation by American troops.  If Trump was shrewd he would publicly disavow any such occupation, perhaps in the form of a written treaty with the Chinese.  The grim reality is that a Chinese annexation of North Korea may have less of a risk of nuclear escalation than a US attack on the country.

Regards

Zachary Barker

Letter to the I: Trump Letter

I am becoming more and more convinced that the seemingly chaotic way that President Donald Trump runs the White House is by design and not by accident.  Every time a major resignation or sacking takes place the news cycle goes into a frenzy over the recently departed official.  This conveniently blanks out coverage of the disturbing testimony starting to come out of Congress's probe into the Russian scandal.  His supporters are likely to put up with this style of ruling for a while, since it fits into his narrative of governing unlike any other President.  I feel their support will only waver if the US economy faces a severe downturn.

Regards

Zachary Barker

Letter to the I: Green Taxis

With regards to David Gant's letter regarding Taxis, I believe he is being a bit unfair to Taxi drivers.  Many Taxi drivers are self employed and are thus vulnerable to extra costs.  In my home city the council has unfairly burdened them with the cost of painting their Taxis blue, in a scheme to lessen the use of unlicensed Taxis.  Forcing Taxi drivers to buy an electric car would be a hefty cost on them.  Governments could be the vehicle for easing such transitions, by instance offering loan schemes to buy such vehicles.  To make our economy competitive and green we need to support self employed people during the technological transition.

Regards

Zachary Barker

Letter to the I: Royals and the Military

I applaud Jane Jakeman's letter denouncing Prince Charles ' shameless posing with military medals he has not earned.  I would point out though that the British Royal Family making a mockery of our armed forces has been going on from at least when the Duke of York mishandled his command during the Napoleonic Wars.  Prince Harry and William have pirouetted from one military service to another, at great cost to the taxpayer.  The former had much more protection from enemy fire more than his fellow squad mates.  The Americans would go mad if the Trump's treated their armed forces so flippantly, so why do we allow our Royal Family to do so.

Regards

Zachary Barker 

Letter to the I: Queen's Retirement

With regards to Nicholas Winch's letter which recommends the Queen retirement, with respect to him I think he misunderstands her motives in persevering.  I am convinced that the Queen means to follow the tradition of the other allegedly "great" Queen that was Queen Victoria and die in office.  In so doing the mourning period will neatly cover the transition period to the successor, which will most likely be the more controversial Prince Charles.  The British public are well within their rights to see past this cynical PR manoeuvre and consider democratic alternatives to an institution that is much more frail than our aging monarch.

Regards

Zachary Barker