Begum’s case requires special consideration
Gary Younge (1 March)gives an interesting if flawed summation of the Shamima Begum case. He attempts to equate her situation with his own youthful misdemeanours with marijuana, hardly a valid comparison, as well as conflating her case with the recent deportation of former Jamaican refugees with established UK residence. Younge points to the latter as evidence of racial bias at the Home Office.
Begum was a minor when her initial offence was committed, that of actively supporting a terrorist group which aims in part to destabilise the UK and when possible to slaughter its citizens who do not support it.
This is countermanded by Begum’s evident lack of contrition for her defection. She clearly presents an ongoing risk to British society unless she revokes her beliefs in a credible manner.
The broader moral question is: under what circumstances should citizenship be revoked, whether or not that, as a consequence, a person becomes stateless?
It seems to me that a special tribunal should be convened and its findings subject to appeal in the highest court. A simplistic appeal to implied racial bias, combined with the assumed innocence of youth, is far from sufficient.
Noel Bird
Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
Schoolchildren’s message offers climate hope
Thank you for the edition on Greta Thunberg and the schoolchildren’s strikes (15 February). Greta’s address to the IMF on climate change should be on the front page of every newspaper in the world. Her words are as profound as Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. The world will indeed not long remember what is said today, but it will never forget what is done, or left undone, today.
Charles Vaughan
Black Creek, British Columbia, Canada
• I’ll admit to my sceptical feelings that anything meaningful would be done about global warming in time to be effective. But Greta Thunberg’s clear and forceful words and the movement she has sparked have given me renewed hope that panic now may lead to actions that may save our burning house.
Spence Blakely
Glenview, Illinois, US
Referendum rules would have saved a lot of grief
Your article on David Cameron (15 February) was interesting, but it ignored the question that many outside the UK have been asking but, apparently, no one inside it. Why, on the most important issue most people would address in their lives, was the referendum just cast out there without any guidelines or rules, like a minimum turnout or margin of victory?
After all, what would have happened had the leavers won by just 1%, or even 100 votes? Would Theresa May and the Brexiters be persisting with the canard about the will of the people, and be pressing on with Brexit? Does anyone believe that?
Graeme Barrow
Whangarei, New Zealand
Give a little, Britain – and get a lot back from the EU
In the Opinion article If the UK wants Europe to listen, it must learn to speak European (1 February), Timothy Garton Ash points out that: “One of Britain’s chronic problems in Europe is that while there have been many pro-European British politicians, there have been far fewer who actually speak European, in the way that French and Germans, Poles, Spaniards and Italians instinctively do.” Thank you for mentioning the rest of us EU members – after all there are 27 of us with a total population of approximately 440 million.
Perhaps including an EU component in UK school curricula would be a good place to start. Reinstating a compulsory EU language for children aged 10 upwards might also encourage both British MPs and the public to be more informed of continental culture and events. EU Day, 9 May, could be celebrated nationwide.
Why not apply the mantra “give a little, get a lot”?
Katrina Osborn
Montréjeau, France
A tweak to a week in the life of the world
It may be audacious to suggest this, but might the Guardian Weekly consider adapting its catchphrase “A week in the life of the world” to “Life in a week of the world”? The GW, in my view, provides a collection of events, reflections and discourse about our lives and world.
Stewart Stubbs
Wentworth Falls, NSW, Australia
