WHAT an extraordinary and complacent diatribe from Mr Drax last Friday (July 15).

There are two crucial points that he overlooked. The most immediately important is his moral confusion.

He appears to attribute problems with racism to people of other races.

It needs to be said very clearly that the problem with racism is racists, and they should not be appeased in the comforting way Mr Drax that appears to side with them. I hope he will take the opportunity to correct this next week.

Secondly, as far as the current refugee crisis is concerned, he must know that much of the last hundred years’ worth of British middle eastern policy has been directed, by a mixture of self-interest, exploitation, deceit and violence, to the undermining of stability in the region with the results that now confront us.

Other European countries, some not without a share of responsibility, are less guilty than we are.

And other European countries are picking up the tab for our debts. Whatever consequent difficulties they are now facing, those countries are seeing humane leadership. Our own response, a detached smugness and a prime minister content to leave refugees drowning in the Mediterranean (to discourage the others) shows very clearly that, far from being Mr Drax’s “beacon of hope”, we are in danger of becoming a citadel of indifference.

Barry Tempest

Romulus Close

Dorchester