We need to re-evaluate how Shamima Begum is treated

It’s interesting to see that the government believes that a 16-year-old is too young to apply for a gender recognition certificate, saying instead that they need to be at least 18 in order to be responsible enough for such an application.

And yet they continue to persecute Shamima Begum for the decisions she made at just 15 – that is, three years younger than the government’s estimated age of maturity. Despite the evidence that suggests Begum and her friends were victims of trafficking, the government has continually refused to reinstate her citizenship.

Begum’s case should be sensitively investigated in the light that she may have been unduly influenced while underage.

Tim Sidaway Hertfordshire

The Tory’s best hope is mass amnesia

While David Davis is largely correct in his assessment of the likely impact of raising Johnson from his political grave, still wearing the shroud that put him there, his assessment of Johnson’s importance to the electoral prospects of the Tory party may be wide of the mark (Boris Brigade could lead to a decade of power for Labour, Voices, yesterday). Whilst Johnson’s presence is unlikely to garner votes, Davis should not underestimate the role of the whole Tory party in our current circumstances and its

presence in public perceptions. They loom larger than those of its pin-up boy.

Their current performance in the mismanagement of the NHS and other public bodies will prove memorable. Successive Tory governments have spread their damaging tentacles far and wide but there is one arm that is proving particularly troublesome.

Many people who favoured it have changed their minds. Young people who could not vote against Brexit are becoming voters in numbers, while older supporters are now diminishing apace. The damaging consequences and overt lies underlying it are a growing realisation, and they are Tory; the evolving demographic is not. The refreshed electorate may wish to reinstate former arrangements with the EU or even rejoin. The Tory party and its policies, with or without Johnson, are out of tune and running out of time.

To govern a party needs votes and it is difficult to see where an unreformed Tory party will get them from. Irrespective of team selection and with their current philosophies, the Tory’s best hope for government at all, let alone within the next 10 years, may be electoral mass amnesia. If they choose to continue as the party of the ultra-wealthy, they may not survive at all.

David Nelmes Newport

Let them eat vegan cake

By focusing on cake crumbs, Professor Jebb from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is ignoring the cow in the room (Don’t let them eat cake: the office must be free of treats, Voices, yesterday). Meat, eggs, and dairy – all of which contain cholesterol and saturated fat – are the main culprits behind the obesity epidemic. All contribute to the UK’s top killers: heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and various types of cancer. The World Health Organisation places processed meat alongside smoking as one of the leading causes of cancer.

Despite the damning scientific evidence, the FSA continues to promote animal-derived foods, even though it’s well documented that many health problems can be alleviated and even reversed by switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet. So if the agency wanted to address the real problem in our food system, it would advise each of us to ditch these artery-clogging and diabetes-triggering foods and opt for healthier, humane vegan options instead – including indulging, occasionally, in vegan cake.

Bhuvaneshwari Gupta Address supplied