I am concerned about Andrew Mitchell and what will happen to him once he settles his debts, believed to be about £3m (He did say ‘pleb’: judge’s ruling leaves Mitchell’s career in ruins, 28 November). Handing over this much money could clearly leave him destitute, and he could lose his homes. However, I can assure him we will be able to find a room for him where I work – a charity-run hostel for homeless people in Birmingham. And it is only a short distance from his Sutton Coldfield constituency, should the fine people there choose to re-elect him.
We house about 170 people at present on one of our sites and about 200 on several more. You could say we are one of the few growth industries of recent times. It also means Mr Mitchell would get to know a few more “plebs” and the problems they face thanks to the actions of his government. He may even realise they are not just “people you step over on your way home from the opera”, as another Tory once said.
Graham Hart
Birmingham
• Mr Justice Mitting believed PC Toby Rowland rather than Andrew Mitchell over the “pleb” allegation, but his reasons for doing so were not very flattering. The officer, according to the judge, “is not the sort of man who had the wit, the imagination or the inclination” to “invent in the spur of the moment what a senior cabinet minister would have said to him”. I don’t know how PC Rowland feels, but I’d prefer to be called a pleb.
Donald Mackinnon
Newport, Gwent
• I think the judge is probably wrong there. I’m sure the PC could have managed to think of something if he’d wanted to. More to the point is that Mr Rowland was able to handle the challenging dilemma of telling right from wrong.
David Barford
Cardiff
• It will take more than one sensible legal decision to restore any faith I have in British justice, but the £1.5m bill shows how ludicrous the system is. At the same time, the fact that Mitchell brought the case shows what an arrogant person he is. And why was he demanding the gate be opened when he could easily have wheeled his bike through the side gate, or ridden it on the pavement like most cyclists would have done? But perhaps he was afraid the police might arrest him for that? What a waste of time, energy and effort, all for one little man’s ego.
David Reed
London
• Ill-advised or capricious as the decision to sue for libel may have been, I just don’t understand how the costs of such a relatively short trial can amount to anything like £1.5m – £1.5m represents 15 years’ labour at a relatively generous salary of £100k per year. Very nice work if you can get it.
Andy Smith
Kingston upon Thames, Surrey
• Parliament is currently passing a bill designed to enable electors to recall MPs who have behaved badly. Andrew Mitchell has been found to have behaved badly. Yet the bill in its present form would not enable the electors of Sutton Coldfield to decide if they would like him to remain as their MP. Would it not make for better accountability if it did?
Tony Wright
Birmingham
• Now that the Andrew Mitchell libel trial has concluded, I do hope Bob Geldof (a character witness for Mitchell) will not be raising funds by releasing a song titled Legal Aid or something similar.
Kapil Juj
London
• Perhaps all those commenting on the Mitchell affair should recall that the post of tribune of the plebs was one of the most honourable and sought after in the Roman republic?
Dugald MacInnes
London
• In all the reports about “plebgate”, no one has explained why Andrew Mitchell was told to dismount at the gates of Downing Street and wheel his bicycle awkwardly through a side gate. There were three able-bodied policemen standing around on a rather tedious duty. Surely one of them could have made the modest effort to open the main gate and let him cycle through?
John Birtill
Guisborough, North Yorkshire
• What a pity that Andrew Mitchell didn’t have a taxi following his bicycle, the better to carry his government documents as he cycled across London. Then we might have had a complete recording of the encounter at the gates.
Bob Caldwell
Daventry, Northamptonshire
• I can’t help feeling a shred of sympathy with Mitchell’s angry “pleb” moment. It is mild compared with David Mellor’s considered diatribe to the taxi driver. Could one imagine any more offensive piece of elitist narcissism than that?
Betty Rosen
London
