The perplexing priorities of climate protesters

SIR – I would have more time for Dr Grahame Buss’s justification of his actions as a climate protester (Letters, September 17) if he and others directed their anger at those governments which, unlike ours, have not obliged themselves by law to reduce their countries to economic penury within 30 years. (Perhaps a superglued sit-in outside the Chinese Embassy would be in order.) Moreover, why he imagines that the planet will be saved once Britain has eliminated its 1 per cent contribution to the world’s carbon emissions is a mystery.

In the meantime, the disruption caused by the protests – some of which is literally endangering the lives of others – is self-defeating. The real issue is the disgraceful behaviour of those police who, rather than upholding the law, bend over backwards to facilitate the breaking of it. They and their indulgent superiors should be sacked. Philip J Ashe

Leeds, West Yorkshire

SIR – Regarding Camilla Tominey’s article (“Police should be on the side of the public, not green extremists”, Comment, September 17), there is another reason for the problem she identifies. Since the rebranding of the police as a “service”, the organisation has become, in all but name, part of the social services. Members have been steeped in this culture, while the courts have become more lenient towards the kind of behaviour we are seeing today. The police must return to being a force, whose duty is to uphold the Queen’s Peace.

Bob Tozer

Torbay, Devon