Letters, contributions and comments sent in from Times’ readers this week.

Party should be consistent

Paul Lorber, former Liberal Democrat leader of Brent Council, Stapenhill Road, Wembley, writes:

Well done Brent&Kilburn Times for exposing and holding the leader of Brent Council to account for breaking lockdown rules (Times).

In these difficult times, it is important that people in privileged positions are not above the law.

The Labour Party were right to call on the prime minister to sack Dominic Cummings for breaking the rules.

To be consistent, the national Labour Party and the Labour Party in Brent should not remain silent when one of their own local leaders did the same.

It was surely not a simple coincidence that Cllr Butt, Cllr Sangani, two other Labour councillors and Mr Chetan Harpale (the Labour candidate for Alperton suspended by Labour) just happened to be present at the same event which Cllr Sangani reported on her Twitter account. This was clearly an organised visit.

Local people have made many sacrifices. Many have not been able to attend family events including funerals, weddings, birthdays or religious festivals.

The Labour leader of the council and local Labour MPs have attacked others for breaking lockdown rules - while at least four Brent Labour councillors were doing the same.

The people of Brent deserve better and credible leadership at this very difficult time.

It is therefore time that Labour councillors in Brent took responsibility to appoint a new leader to provide that credible leadership for our local area.

US election

Trevor Ellis, Chalk Hill Road, Wembley, writes:

As the president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, comes to terms with defeat to president elect Joe Biden, I think that the leader of the opposition in our country should pay close attention to the means by which Joe Biden won.

Jeremy Corbyn was elevated to being the leader of the Labour party but gradually lost the trust that was placed in him.

Failure to secure victory in the 2019 General Election, plus the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into antisemitism, along with Corbyn’s failure to accept the findings by saying the accusations were “dramatically overstated for political reasons” by opponents and the media, resembles the attitude of Donald Trump who was accused of being a racist and pandering to the far right, while repeating the slogan “let’s make America great again” and finally making unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.

It’s clear that Americans want change and so they voted for Joe Biden, who presented himself as a modest, humble, forward thinking candidate for the highest office in America.

Of course, America is divided (just as we are in the UK) and just as the saying goes about “a house that is divided”, likewise, division and poor leadership always leads to failure and Donald Trump, for all his success as a businessman, let pride and arrogance take the place of modesty and humility, just like Corbyn, and both ended up losing the trust that was placed in them.

If Sir Keir Starmer hopes to lead his shadow cabinet to victory, he will need to learn modesty and humility and remember that they are the qualities that win trust, respect and, from a political perspective, votes.