Robert Mugabe is a model of uncaring greed and incompetence

Am I a middle-order megalomaniac? Have I at best turned a blind eye to the killing, torture and rape of tens of thousands of my own people? Have I stolen millions of my country’s currency for my own corrupt and nefarious purposes? Have I rigged to my advantage every single one of my country’s votes? Have I wrecked within a generation the vibrant expanding economy of my country through my ineptitude and avarice? Have I allowed thousands of my countrymen to starve to death? Am I seen as a model of uncaring greed and incompetence, and regarded with utter contempt and loathing by most of the world?

No? Damn. There goes my chance of my being appointed a WHO Goodwill Ambassador.

Allan Friswell

Cowling

Mugabe is the wrong man for the job

Does the WHO have a political, health and financial clout in today’s world? The WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus and his entourage are all political appointees. Who would expect them to find solutions to the world’s intransigent diseases, manage the outbreaks of hurricanes and volcanoes, end wars and insurgencies or prevent long-term illnesses such as heart diseases, obesity, cancers, dementia, diabetes, mental illnesses, etc? We can expect only condemnations, announcements and briefings; nothing tangible to solve the daunting challenges we face.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London

This is the man who has single-handedly almost bankrupted his country and brought lots of his people to near starvation. Zimbabwe’s health services are near non-existent and the country has one of the lowest life expectancy rates!

I would strongly suggest that one [WHO Director-General] Tedros Ghebreyesus resigns forthwith, and with his obvious and total lack of judgement and vision it would not surprise me to learn that he thinks a role promoting white supremacists would be the way forward.

Robert Boston

Kingshill

Diversity at Oxbridge is lacking

As another state educated lad from “Up North” who spent his gap year working down the pit before going to Cambridge University I do not recognise the Cambridge described by Tom Rasmussen. Instead of taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity to meet a wide range of people from different backgrounds he seems to have let the chip on his shoulder get the better of him. I suspect his tutor’s comment was because he recognised this too.

Jerry Wallwork

Leicester

After reading “I`m northern and working class – I was made to feel unwelcome at Cambridge, 21/10/17”, Tom Rasmussen`s appalling experience at Cambridge explains why only a few high-attaining black and working class students bother to apply to Oxford or Cambridge, especially when both universities do so little to disprove the perceived myths which surround them.

Interviews clearly do not give all candidates a chance to show off their knowledge and understanding, and often lead not merely to failure, but to humiliation and embarrassment, and the accompanying damaged self-esteem.

Bernie Evans

Liverpool

What has gone wrong at Oxbridge? I went to Cambridge in 1972. I was a grammar school boy, and no one from my family (either side, ever) had been to any university. Two of my friends at College were from council estates. There were some rich kids, but not that many (well done Fitzwilliam College). 45 years later, in six years Merton College Oxford has taken not one – not one! – black student. Social inclusion seems to have gone backwards in the last half century.

Paul Housego

Bovey Tracey

EU negotiators are not ‘bullying’ us

What planet is Dave Haskell on? He accuses the EU of bullying us poor Brits over Brexit.

Has he not heard the right-wing press and Tory Brexiteers’ continuous baiting of senior EU politicians, including boorish Boris telling them to “go whistle”? Did he not read our Prime Minister’s Article 50 letter all but threatening to withdraw co-operation over security matters if the EU didn’t give us what we want? Then there was our government’s provocative and arrogant stance of “we can have our cake and eat it”. I could go on and on.

As things stand, I wouldn’t blame the EU if they told us to “go whistle” with a special mention for Dave Haskell.

Joe Hennessy

Address supplied

Funding the NHS – a new idea

Using the same “logic” displayed by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, I suggest that Britain should remain in the EU and spend the £20-60bn saved on the exit settlement on the NHS.

Dr Ian Vance

Basingstoke