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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Letters

Politicians should learn to lose with dignity

New Yorkers celebrate Joe Biden winning election over Donald Trump, Time Square
‘One thing democratic politicians soon realise is that sometimes they are going to lose,’ writes John Fisher. Photograph: Mychal Watts/Rex/Shutterstock

Who knows what soon-to-be former president Trump will get up to between now and the January inauguration (Joe Biden beats Donald Trump to win US election, 7 November)? Perhaps Joe Biden should promise a pardon and reinstatement with full pension rights to any government official who refuses to carry out unreasonable executive orders issued by Trump while still president.
Patrick Cosgrove
Chapel Lawn, Shropshire

• I have heard some people say that what they like about Donald Trump is “that he is not a politician”, but one thing democratic politicians soon realise is that sometimes they are going to lose, so, if they are to retain their sanity, they learn to lose with dignity (Marina Hyde, 6 November).
John Fisher
Lewes, East Sussex

• Thank you for your excellent debunking of Trump’s claims (Donald Trump’s election results speech: all the false claims, 6 November). Please can we now have a similar one every week, following prime minister’s questions? Shouldn’t be too much to ask!
Deirdre Burrell
Mortimer, Berkshire

• Does not Boris Johnson and his allies’ refusal to criticise Trump’s lying about the election, just in case he may still have won, say everything that one needs to know about them?
Brian Smith
Berlin, Germany

• Tim Williamson (Letters, 6 November) invites suggestions for an adjective describing a country that “calls itself a democracy but abjectly fails”. Surely a noun would be more telling: “hypocracy”.
Ian Barge
Ludlow, Shropshire

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