Government workers must call Trump’s bluff
Trump’s shutdown of the US government would likely have come to a head much sooner if federal workers had not continued to work without pay. It seems they did this largely out of a sense of duty (1 February).
If as threatened, Trump does it again they should stop work immediately. The record now shows that Trump’s bluster cannot withstand the cessation of vital services, in particular air traffic control. The sooner his bluff is called, the better.
Lawrie Bradly
Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• I read Khushbu Shah’s report about Jesup, the south Georgia town and site of a federal prison employing 300 workers who were working without pay (25 January). It is impossible for me to believe, having lived in or near small towns in the midwest for most of my 70 years, that the citizens of a town of 10,000 were that ignorant of the troubles of 300 of their fellow citizens. It looks as if the perhaps 90% of the white citizens who probably voted for Trump were circling the wagons against an outsider. Nothing else but pretence accounts for the ignorance of the coffee barista, the hair salon owner, the grocery employee. Small towns just do not work this way.
Jim Van Der Pol
Kerkhoven, Minnesota, US
• That’s right, Donald: “Make America Great Again”, by withholding wages for essential services workers. I trust the wages of congressmen and women were also suspended, and they have not been unduly disadvantaged.
Carmelo Bazzano
Melbourne, Australia
Brexit is not just about Westminster politics
Fintan O’Toole is right to say that Brexit is “about Britain’s relationship with itself” (25 January), but is it not important to look at who, apart from assorted chancers and eccentrics in the Conservative party, actually wants it?
Vladimir Putin looks forward to western Europe becoming poorer and more disunited, and to an inward-looking and newly fissiparous UK preoccupied with finding scapegoats for the loss of prosperity consequent on ditching so many of the trade arrangements built up over the last 43 years.
President Trump looks forward to Putting America First in a “beautiful” trade deal with an isolated and demoralised UK.
Do we really want to gratify these two heroes?
James Barbour
Belfast, UK
• The Guardian’s reporting on the parliamentary Brexit defeat nicely capitalises on the politicking going on in Westminster, but fails to include a syllable on what the UK is failing to do: sealing a deal with another nation or multinational body (25 January).
There are two sides to this story. With such reporting it appears only logical that the British lawmakers fail to realise that: 1) any concessions on the backstop in the current deal will likely have to be bought with UK concessions in other areas, and 2) after Brexit the UK still needs to sign free-trade deals with other countries.
If getting out of the EU is so difficult, how is getting into new trade deals ever going to happen?
Christian Ensslin
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Moa fossils might keep people busy for years
Eleanor Ainge Roy (25 January) reports that the unrestricted trade in moa fossils has archaeologists lamenting the loss of “millions of years of science”. Perhaps today one needs to be something of an archaeologist to remember that “science” normally refers to a discipline of study or the knowledge attained thereby, and not to “really cool natural phenomena” themselves.
Then again, human curiosity and cosmic beauty being what they are, perhaps it really is true that the moa’s skeletal system could alone sustain millions of years of study.
Josiah Henderson
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Premier League story is about endless greed
Your article about the “big six” in the Premier League seeking a greater share of the revenue (25 January) is a study in microcosm of what is wrong with the world. Already incredibly rich people and entities seek still more, because they regard themselves as being entitled to it. Simply, endless greed. The revolution will come.
N Millar
Hong Kong
