Beintolerant

We are seeing a lot of behaviour causing disruption and damage to all aspects of society by self-appointed guardians of the truth, as they see it. Climate activists preventing emergency vehicles reaching hospitals and smashing their way into a bank in Glasgow, because they know they are right and those who do not spurn all fossil fuels right now are wrong. Let down 4x4 tyres in Edinburgh? Fine. That’s because we are good and 4x4s and the people who own them are bad.

We see the same behaviour expressed by Islamists who also know that they are right and (again) everyone else is wrong. The end result is the same. Everyone else must be forced to accept their outlook, whether they like it or not.

This is only one step from invading the Ukraine because the Ukrainians are “Nazis”? That makes Russia “good” and the western-backed Ukrainians “bad”. Russia used to run things in Ukraine and wants to do so again. Russia also wants to run Poland, Hungary, Romania etc because Russia is good (see above) and thus, whatever they do is good.

Forget motivation. It is always self-justifying. Instead, punish the crime and punish it severely. The world’s problems are quite simple. There are far too many people, which causes tensions, and in Russia, China and Trump’s USA, dissent is not allowed because only one viewpoint is acceptable. Worryingly, we are hearing that in academia in Britain now. We must be intolerant of intolerance. It is our only hope.

PETER HOPKINS

Edinburgh