As coronavirus panic spreads in the UK, it’s clear we need a daily national broadcast to debunk the myths

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Like everybody else in the UK, I am randomly picking up mixed messages concerning the symptoms, treatment prevention of the spread of coronavirus from a myriad of news publications, TV and radio broadcasts and, not least, the people in the Post Office queue.

Could I suggest that in order to ensure that we negate the myriad of these confusing messages flying around and so that we all understand exactly what is expected of our government, our health service and ourselves, there should be a national broadcast on all TV and radio stations, social media and the like? It could go out at, say, 7pm each evening for five minutes, containing all the accurate, relevant and appropriate information necessary to minimise the risk to us all.

If not, why not?

Colin Burke
Manchester

Boris Johnson’s expanding family

Two previous prime ministers have added to their families while in office.

One took us to war. The other permitted Brexit.

It can’t be proved that their catastrophic failures of judgement were caused by the stresses of parenthood. But to me, any correlation would be worrying, especially when the decision-making capacity of the present incumbent has already given cause for concern.

Susan Alexander
South Gloucestershire

Dog-whistle politics

Once again Robert Fisk opens our eyes. His long read (“What do Trump, Farage and Hitler have in common? A reliance on fiery, antagonistic rhetoric”) focused on the third wartime diary of Victor Klemperer. While the diary related to the linguistics of the Nazi regime, Fisk brilliantly showed how the same nationalistic rhetoric, used by Hitler, has found its way into the speeches of Trump and Farage. The dog-whistle politics of Hitler now infect our public discourse. “Make America Great Again”, “Get Brexit Done”, simplistic almost meaningless slogans designed to appeal to the ill-informed.

Ironically, in the same Daily Edition today, there is an article regarding the first past the post electoral system and how, to quote AC Grayling, it creates the tyranny of the majority. It would not be too much a stretch to credit such systems risking the tyranny of the ill-informed.

G Barlow
Wirral

He who drums last

William Lewis (Letters, 1 March) questions Labour’s direction and states that during the last election campaign, Jeremy Corbyn’s policies found little favour among the public. Most analyses show that the policies were actually pretty popular but, following a muddled approach to Brexit and relentless media negativity, the politicians weren’t.

Lewis also writes that those who drum loudest often represent the fewest people. That could well be said about the clamorous voices prompting Labour to return to the political centre ground. The election results showed no surge of support for the centre, and watering down its policies will be no way for Labour to recapture its lost votes.

Thanks to Brexit, Boris Johnson got away with presenting himself as a “man of the people”. Labour’s best chance of redemption is to elect a credible woman of the people. That’s the right honourable member for Salford and Eccles.

Paul Halas

Stroud

Chlorinated chicken flip-flopping

As negotiations get under way with the EU, we would be well advised to listen carefully to what members of the government are now saying so as to get an indication of any shifts in their positions since the election.

Such a shift may have been signalled on BBC Breakfast this morning when Liz Truss, the secretary of state for international trade, talked about chlorinated chicken. She said: “I can absolutely guarantee that in a trade deal with the US we will not diminish our food safety standards.”

Not quite the same as saying it won’t be allowed in the UK, particularly as the US position is that chlorinated chicken is used widely in the US with no adverse effect on the health of Americans.

I think we can see where the government is taking us on that one, so I suggest the fishing community and others should be looking carefully for indications on how their interests will be dealt with now that we enter the real world of negotiations rather than the fantasy one of electioneering.

John Simpson
Ross on Wye

What’s wrong with chlorinated chicken?

As someone who lived in the USA for 32 years, and have returned two or three times a year since we moved back to the UK, I guess I must have eaten a lot of chlorinated chicken. I can’t tell the difference and can’t see any bad effects from over 35 years of doing so.

Do you suppose we could focus our trade talks on something that matters instead of something that is more eye-catching?

Steve Mumby
London SW6