Demonstrators protest outside Downing Street against the delay in easing of lockdown restrictions
Credit: Barcroft Media
SIR – What is the Latin for “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”? Somehow we need to get through to the Prime Minister that extending lockdown is a catastrophic decision.
More than half of voters may be happy with another month of restrictions, but that is because more than half are not significantly affected.
Pubs, restaurants and shops have all been able to operate to some degree, but other industries have been closed since March 2020. The major live-events sector, for example, is still almost entirely shut down, and lives are being ruined and lost daily. There are no generous automatic grants and no business rates holidays for them.
SIR – As a youngster I was taught that I would be innocent until proved guilty.
Some years ago, the then Director of Public Prosecutions told the Crown Prosecution Service that those alleging crime should be called victims and believed by the police. This resulted in senior members of the public being charged on the word of a fantasist.
We now have progressed to guilty as alleged until proved innocent. The Royal family and our Prime Minister are examples of this reversal of the presumption to guilty until proved innocent. When will we revert to innocent until proved guilty?
His Honour Lord Parmoor
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15 March 2021 • 12:02am
A well-wisher lays a bunch of flowers to honour Sarah Everard before the vigil at Clapham Common on Saturday night
Credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP
SIR – Two wrongs do not make a right. The vigil for Sarah Everard at Clapham Common should not have taken place when Covid-19 is still rampant. However, the police response, which included tackling women to the ground and physically overpowering them, was equally wrong. The police were doing exactly what the women were protesting against.
Mick Ferrie
Mawnan Smith, Cornwall
SIR – The policing at Clapham Common is receiving much criticism. However, in our modern, liberal society you get the type of policing the public and politicians demand.
Police officers in Trafalgar Square in London
SIR – Derbyshire police have harassed people and issued Fixed Penalty Notices for activities that are permitted by the Covid regulations.
Failure to distinguish between guidance and statutory regulations indicates a level of incompetence by senior management which surely requires a visit by a member of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.
David Over
SIR – I wholeheartedly agree with His Honour Charles Wide (Letters, January 11). Law and guidance are separate matters. The former is enforceable and must be followed. I would suggest that government website guidance deliberately tries to conflate the two in the minds of the public.