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Shamima Begum may have done wrong – but her child is completely innocent

As readers may know Shamima Begum left the United Kingdom in 2014 to join Isis as a jihadi bride. After losing two consecutive children due to the harsh living conditions in Raqqa, she is now nine months pregnant with her third child. She has petitioned to the UK government to be allowed to return to her home land to give birth and raise her child. It is in my opinion that she should indeed be allowed to come back.

Firstly, we should turn our attention to her unborn child. Since the mother is a UK national, the child by extension should also have a right to be brought up in UK. It may be true that the mother committed treachery against the UK government by going to Syria and allying with an enemy of the state. However, in the same breath, the child itself is innocent of any crimes or sin. It is for this reason that we should take this matter with great sympathy. As far as to whether she has committed any crimes, then she should be dealt with the appropriate process of justice.

If found guilty, she should certainly receive the due punishment. If she is found not guilty, she may still be a threat to society and therefore, I would advise the government to carefully monitor her activities in the UK for a sustained period of time. But this does not detract from the innocence of the child. It is out of pure consideration for her unborn that I think she should be allowed to return.

Sabah Uddin Ahmedi
Address supplied

As prime minister of Albania, I object to my country being called the ‘Colombia of Europe’

I write in response to your recent feature describing Albania as the Colombia of Europe. Compared with other European nations, let alone with the worst drug economies of South America, Albania is far from being a drugs capital. Your report was based on a world as it once was; but huge progress has been made since my government took office in 2013.

Yes, in the past authorities have protected the drugs gangs, with police steered away from gang-controlled areas, including Lazarati, which became a lawless “hot spot”. As part of our programme for European integration and adoption of EU standards, we ordered an immediate crackdown when my government came into power. It took several years of struggle but we have been successful.

Cannabis cultivation in Albania has been virtually eliminated, a fact verified by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza through EU-sponsored aerial monitoring.

We are playing a full part in international efforts to curb the flow of drugs from elsewhere through our region to Northern Europe. We have joined forces with Europol, Interpol, Frontex and our Balkan neighbours to target the criminal organisations behind this vile trade. And we have recently initiated an ambitious programme of criminal asset confiscation.

Removing corrupt judges, prosecutors and police fuels a backlash. A small but vocal minority in Albania would prefer a return to the old days. They make themselves accessible to roving journalists perhaps unfamiliar with Albania’s difficult pre-2013 history. As Albania accelerates along its path to EU membership, media interest is natural and expected. But we would like the whole story to be told, not just sensational and baseless headlines.

On another note, may I add my support to your Final Say campaign on Brexit. As a long-standing admirer of the UK, I am one of many European leaders who hopes that in the coming weeks and months the country finds a way to revisit the decision to leave the EU. We would all be weaker without the UK in the EU.

Edi Rama
Prime minister of Albania

The country is split

I don’t entirely follow Clive Lewis’s reasoning that, by failing to oppose Brexit, Labour will lose the next election, because I have read that while a majority of Labour members wish to remain in the EU, a majority of Labour voters wish to leave. With the country more or less split down the middle it’s hard to see how anyone can reconcile the two diametrically opposed positions.

I think what is much more likely to damage Labour’s electoral chances is the destructive antagonism of certain of its MPs, which is relentless. We are now hearing of a breakaway group wanting to form a new party – I fear their hubris is misleading them about how successful this might be. After all, Jeremy Corbyn brought Labour to within a hair’s breadth of winning the last election, something Ed Miliband failed to do with his more middle of the road policies. And the Liberal Democrats consistently fail to make progress with the electorate, only having got into shared government when being used to prop up David Cameron’s lot, and more fool them.

Perhaps those passionately wishing to avoid leaving the EU are more obsessed with the issue than a significant portion of the electorate, who may be anxiously waiting for a Labour government to relieve their poverty, their worries about the NHS, the environment, and their feelings of hopelessness engendered by the callousness of the present government, and the two that preceded it.

Penny Little
Great Haseley

It’s time the United States repeals its outdated Second Amendment

The 14th of February 2018 marks the anniversary of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School – the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that stirred a nation’s outrage at the epidemic of gun violence. The shooter, armed with a military style semi-automatic AR-15, gunned down 17 students, staff and teachers in just three minutes. Several of the students who survived rose to national prominence taking aim at the “hall of shame” – the NRA and the politicians who put profit over people’s lives. Sadly, “Never again” becomes the rallying cry after each mass shooting.

The nation owes a debt of gratitude to the organisers of “March for Our Lives” who mobilised the youth vote nationwide for the midterm elections and nearly defeated the pro-gun candidates in the Parkland students’ home state of Florida. Nearly 1,200 children have died from gun violence in the year following the Parkland shooting. That’s three to four a day. This is a national outrage. It is time we take aim at the real villain: the Second Amendment.

This was relevant at the birth of our nation when states had legitimate fears of an overbearing tyrannical federal government but has no place in today’s society. Retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens is a vigorous advocate for repealing the Second Amendment. We should heed his wise words. Finally, it is time we demand revocation of the NRA’s non-profit status.

Jagjit Singh
California

Thank God for the NHS

Goodness, how lucky am I? In late September, I was given a CT scan and was diagnosed as having non-Hodgkin lymphoma in my right upper chest cavity (I say “diagnosed” because I’d had a similar complaint in my neck 23 years ago). This was confirmed by a needle biopsy on 4 October.

On 22 October, I commenced a chemotherapy course, which has just concluded.

On 2 January, I had a high temperature and attended the A&E department in Carlisle. I was seen by a nurse within 20 minutes, and admitted to the department for immediate treatment and assessment. Within three hours I was on the general medical ward, and put on an antibiotic drip. The following day I was diagnosed with flu, and put in isolation (I’d had the flu jab in the autumn, but this was a different strain, apparently). I was kept in hospital for five days.

To read the article in today’s paper almost breaks my heart, particularly when I learn of the young lady who had to wait so long between diagnosis and treatment.

Is it a lottery? Am I fortunate enough to live in an area of such NHS care & expertise (or, perhaps of low population density)?

Regardless, I am so grateful for the care that I have received.

Paul Warren
Brampton

Antisemitism is and has always been a right-wing problem

Recent figures show that antisemitism is rising sharply across Europe with France reporting a 74 per cent rise in offences against Jews and Germany recording a 60 per cent increase in violent attacks.

Frédéric Potier of the French government’s anti-racism unit Dilcrah argues: “We are witnessing the resurgence of a virulent, far-right identity politics that does not hesitate to put its beliefs into action.”

There is a very real, dangerous and growing “existential threat” to minorities including Jews but, contrary to those who are organising a baseless smear campaign against the life-long anti-racist Jeremy Corbyn, it doesn’t come from the Labour Party or those further to the left.

It comes from where it has always come from – fascists and the far right.

Those making false charges of antisemitism against Corbyn’s Labour Party must stop. Their campaign only serves to disorientate and undermine the anti-racist struggle and it helps the real antisemites.

An old enemy is reviving across Europe and beyond, and anti-racists need to unite and confront it while we have the time to do it.

We dare not repeat the mistakes of the 1930s. Disunity among the left in Germany back then allowed the Nazis to take power.

We need maximum unity to push the resurgent racists back into the gutter where they belong.

Sasha Simic
London N16