Our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent and beyond.

Some letters refer to past correspondence which can be found by clicking here. Join the debate by emailing letters@thekmgroup.co.uk

Don’t lecture the alienated on how to think

For all the bad news of the past week, Britain is becoming more diverse and tolerant, not less.

However, this is not true everywhere and not in some parts of society.

One needs only to read the have your say columns of most online publications to confirm my hypothesis. Social media is one area where tolerance and understanding is sadly missing, not helped by those who should know better stoking sedition with misinformation for their own ends.

In my view if there was more diversity, not less, those who are clearly alienated from society, would find out that those they think as being the other want just the same things as they do - a steady, well-paid job, a decent home and a bit of joy, rather than unceasing flow of grinding austerity, which food bank Britain is delivering for them.

However, calling the alienated stupid, or lecturing them on how they should think and act won't work and there is a danger that their violence on the streets will frighten the government into being more authoritarian, unless law and order is restored, which will be bad for us all.

As for the scheming politicians who seek to benefit from discord by stating falsehoods and those stoking up discontent at a distance, they ought to consider the fate of those who did the same in past eras. It did not go well for them.

Once law and order has been restored fully, that is the time the government should roll up its sleeves, and get on with delivering prosperity for all, not just a few.

Richard Styles

Deaths used as excuse for fanaticism

Big boys don’t cry, nor do grown men but there were many misty eyes after hearing news of the three very young girls savagely killed in Southport.

We all felt we would like to do something and many people did. They lay bunches of flowers in their memory and stood in silent mourning for these poor children.

But some people felt their best act of mourning would be to inform people that the killer was a foreign man, possibly a Muslim and an immigrant here in England illegally.

They found a ready publisher of their wild misinformed rantings in uncontrolled media outlets.

This misinformation encouraged the thugs and weak-willed to believe the only way to ensure this could never again happen was to run through the grieving streets of Southport and other towns in Britain yelling, stoning our police, burning cars and homes, looting shops and behaving in ways that recall the Nazi demonstrators of 1930s.

It does seem that the collapse of our Tory party has caused their least attractive supporters to create a loose organisation on the extreme right. In contrast to what happened in Nazi Germany, however, it seems the legal system is reacting quickly and hard.

These louts may have their supporters but they will not get any tears from anyone with any sense. We all revile their attempt to take on the death of these three young girls as the cause of their fanaticism.

Derek Munton

Depressing to see young people in riots

The most worrying aspect of the recent toxic mix of violence and vandalism up and down the country with attacks on migrants, Islamic communities and the police, is the number of children and teenagers recorded as taking part.

The 11-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of arson in Liverpool, after a police vehicle was set on fire in Hartlepool; the 14-year-old boy who fired a firework at a crowd which went under a police carrier; the 15-year-old who admitted to throwing a paving slab at a man’s head during the riots in Liverpool.

Steven Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has said one of the most striking features of the current outbreak of disorder is that many young people are involved.

Of course, because they are young they wouldn’t either expect to be caught, or consider that they were committing criminal acts and would be punished. He went to warn of the lifelong consequences of a conviction, with a permanent record on the Police National Database which could hamper their future job prospects and ability to travel abroad.

Against this depressing backdrop, Chris Britcher’s article titled: ‘Why school kids are being referred to terror watchdog’, provided a cause for hope in reducing and preventing the future involvement of children in disorder, in the shape of the already existing government initiative called ‘Prevent’.

Set up in 2007 in the wake of Islamic terrorism in London, it has now turned its attention to the activities of the far-right in Britain and it is certainly interested in evidence suggesting that much of the recent violence was guided by far-right leaders on social media.

At the end of the day however, it is in the family setting that children come under the influence of parents and older brothers and sisters, grandparents and aunts and uncles who might inculcate extreme views.

Young children are putty in their hands and I shudder to think that in 20 years or so, these children, unless they drop these views before then, will repeat the process with their own children.

John Cooper

‘Far right’ are ordinary people

Violence, damage to property, and looting are wrong and clearly the police should not be a target for attack, as they are only doing their jobs.

But it is too simplistic to blame the recent riots in British cities on mindless thuggery, as there are serious issues which must be considered.

The so-called progressives of the middle class have facilitated mass immigration, with its consequent effects upon employment, housing, and availability of sufficient medical care, yet have carefully avoided being inconvenienced themselves.

The vast majority of those entering illegally have been transferred to working class areas such as Middlesbrough, while those living in rich enclaves in London and elsewhere have been unaffected.

The Labour Party, which once represented the workers, abandoned them, and now, through its mouthpiece the BBC, demonises them as far right, when in fact they are ordinary people afraid for the future of their children.

The people protesting have also been subjected to threats from the politicians, when nothing similar arose when those such as Black Lives Matter, Just Stop Oil and pro-Hamas demonstrations committed illegal acts.

It is clear that the elites hold the working class in contempt and believe that they can treat them just as they please.

The disturbances will perhaps have made clear that this is not so, and, while criminal acts must be punished, there can be no doubt that the troubles will continue unless valid grievances are addressed.

Colin Bullen

Millions of voices being ignored

Just because someone doesn’t agree with mass immigration, it does not make them ‘far right’ or indeed supportive of the thugs and riots around the country.

But if you are someone who opposes mass immigration, you are ‘far right’ or a Marxist.

It would appear that if you have a different opinion you are a thug or right-wing but this is typical Labour, who simply want to smear anyone who disagrees with them.

I was astonished to see how many of the public came out to show their objection and contempt towards the misguided thugs and morons who rioted throughout England.

But, the Conservatives, and now Labour have done absolutely nothing to stop the boats and tackle illegal immigration.

There is a distinct undercurrent of public opinion that wants something done about it. But their voices are not being heard and are simply being ignored.

I wonder if those same people who ‘welcome’ migrants according to their placards, would put anyone up in their own home. Not many, I guarantee.

There are millions of people in our country totally dissatisfied and the current government ignores their views at its peril.

Sid Anning

Peace must be our priority

I cannot understand those people who argue for greater expenditure on ‘defence’ when what they are actually calling for is more money for weapons of mass destruction, used to kill and destroy.

Whether death is caused in war, through hunger and poverty, by natural causes, or because the NHS does not have the resources to provide the treatment that is required, the result is loss.

Central to all our aims, and to the policy of government, must be the preservation of peace. We should be using all our diplomatic skills to stop war.

I am not naive enough to fail to recognise that our society is a violent one.

What is important is that the mass of people greet the violence that we see directed against vulnerable people, not only with the statement “not in my name” but further “not at all “.

The evidence is that the vast majority oppose these attacks by the far right. They recognise the right to life of all in this country and those seeking refuge.

We have to encourage all those people to work, politically, to ensure that all sections of the community have those basic requirements that enable them to live full and purposeful lives.

Ralph A. Tebbutt

Voting system can’t continue

Has prime minister Sir Keir Stamer met his Peterloo?

On August 16, 1819, in Manchester, local magistrates sent in the Manchester and Salford Yeomany and then the 15th Hussars charging with sabres drawn to dispel a crowd of around 60,000 at Peterloo who were protesting about the absence of voting rights for most men and the high cost of bread caused by parliament's refusal again to repeal the Corn Laws. Eighteen people died and many hundreds were injured.

The government's response was to pass six Acts to suppress meetings which proposed radical reform.

In the general election last month, the electorate peacefully exercised their democratic right at the ballot box. However, the First Past The Post voting system was shown to now be as disproportionate as the “rotten borough” seats were before their abolition by the 1832 Reform Act.

The Alternative Vote system referendum held in 2011 was rejected by the electorate.

Damage and violence at demonstrations cannot be condoned; nor can the continuance of a voting system which, according to the Electoral Reform Society, denied the Reform party 89 more seats whilst giving the Labour Party almost twice as many seats as their percentage vote share entitled them to.

Time for Keir Stamer to practice what he preaches about service, otherwise the scenario of Nigel Farage becoming prime minister becomes increasingly likely!

Richard West, The Chaucer Education Project

Cracks in Tory party bound to reappear

This year we've had quite a few major sporting events but there is just one final contest to capture our interest - the race to pick a new leader of the Conservative party.

Whoever wins, has the arduous task of uniting a party that has been fractured by infighting.

The runners have thrown their hats in the ring and five contenders have emerged.

The Tories have to re-group and make amends for their catalogue of failures when they were in government. They took a serious beating in the general election when Labour won the day and received only 23.6% of the popular vote - the first time in the modern era it has fallen below 30%.

Whoever gains the crown and becomes the leader of the opposition, will need to win over those voters who abandoned them for other parties.

But I'm willing to wager, it wouldn't be long before the cracks and divisions in the party reappear and the effect will be far from sporting.

Michael Smith

Double standards on fuel costs

Labour will slash winter fuel allowance of pensioners - what a disgrace.

In the meantime, according to a parliamentary spokesperson, MPs can claim for energy costs for their constituency office, as well as their residential accommodation (if they represent a non-London constituency).

And: “There is no specific upper limit on energy claims for constituency offices and residential accommodation.”

I wonder what our MP has to say.

Sylvia Laidlow-Petersen