Polly Toynbee wrote this week on the “trepidation, heartache and alarm at what’s to come” in the Brexit process. Readers have been sharing their thoughts in the comments:
‘I have never known a worse time for the UK’
“I am 49 years old and I’ve followed politics since I left school. I have never known a worse time for the UK. As Polly has said before, Brexit is pure poison, nothing good comes from it but division, damage and for me increasingly despair.
“I cannot accept that this country is about to nobble itself economically and take away our rights to travel and work abroad. It is madness and I feel betrayed by the Tories of course, but even more so by Labour, who should know better. Depressing days, but I read this paper daily looking for a ray of hope.”
John Keast
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Gary Younge looks back on the legacy of Martin Luther King, 50 years from his death, and readers have been sharing their own thoughts.
‘King’s Mountaintop speech was chillingly prescient’
“Martin Luther King never lost hope in the capacity to renew and redeem the American dream through peaceful resistance. Even against a tide of disappointments, trade-offs, compromises and slow progress that would inevitably signpost the way along the arc of the moral universe, he believed that the Dream had the capacity to allow its society to evolve and find a better place. Even if his methods must have seemed revolutionary in the dark heart of the Jim Crow South.
“The fact that he was killed for that suggests that we failed him in the end. Not him, us! His Mountaintop speech is chillingly prescient, regardless of how many times I hear it.”
El Zorro
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Many readers agreed with Ryan Gilbey’s pick as part of our series exploring the best decades in film making.
‘The most progressive film era’
“Finally we get to the 1970s. Is there any comparison? From 1969 to 1979 easily the best and most progressive film era. Even a film like Saturday Night Fever, unfairly considered cheesy, is better than almost any mainstream film of the last 10 years eg La La Land.”
LastDuckinOz
Debate continues over Emine Saner’s shortcut on picking pets suitable for your living spaces.
‘If you don’t have space please don’t have a dog’
“I’ve two labradors in my house (note, not flat) in London and they have free range running around the garden via a dog flap in the kitchen door. If I didn’t have a garden – or very, very easy access to one – I wouldn’t have a dog, and I think that the current fashion for dogs of a certain size or shape may mess with the genetic makeup of them as they are bred solely for this purpose. If you don’t have space PLEASE don’t have a dog.”
JWCChristiansen
Readers have been wondering what is behind the rise in extreme long distance running described in Adharanand Finn’s piece.
‘Your own personal episode of survivor’
“I still run 2,500km a year in my 80s, and think the rise of ultras is a direct counter to the rise of the internet generation who can get stuff done in seconds rather than weeks, and those people wondering what to do with all this free time. The extremely easy life we now lead means we need to balance things by finding hard work in our leisure time. Question is, drop dead of boredom, or hit the road for a 150km adventure safari that’s a bit like your own personal episode of survivor.”
Archiebaldauchenlech
Readers have been sharing their reactions to an emotional piece by Jonathan Izard. It was difficult reading for some.
‘I wish you peace’
“What an unexpectedly moving and powerful piece. Your grasp of emotion and your strength of insight have brought me to tears.
“I am so sorry that you have had to endure this and I am so very sorry for the poor man who died and those he left behind. I wish you peace, and I hope that I am correct in observing that you are on your way to finding it.”
ranelagh75
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