Letters - Wednesday January 20, 2021

Over many years history books informed students, some still do, that the Italian dictator, Mussolini, although nasty and incompetent, did some good things. In particular, we were told : ‘he made the trains run on time’ and ‘drained the marshes’. This is pure myth. He did neither.

I was reminded of this reading Geoffrey Brooking’s strange letter (Your Say, January 16).

To be told that Trump did ‘some good things’, for example, he ‘brought peace with North Korea’ (odd wording seeing there’s been no war), plus other fanciful claims about Iran, Israel and Brexit is amusing and wrong. He did nothing but bad.

Trump regards the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un with contempt, describing him last October as fat, short and untrustworthy. Earlier he had threatened him with nuclear fire, 29,000 troops plus an arsenal of weapons including missiles from South Korea to remind Kim to be a good boy. Economic sanctions add to the threat. Two summits were for PR purposes only.

When accused by three women of serious inappropriate behaviour, Trump replied: “They are not my type.” His policies towards Mexicans and Muslims were described by The New York Times as “racist”.

He described his Chief of Staff as “paranoid”. His Secretary of State, Tillerson, said he was “a moron”.

Trump said Hillary Clinton was going to jail , NATO was obsolete and teachers must get guns to shoot back at anyone who threatened schools!

His claim that the election was a fraud is pure Trumpism. When his Apprentice programme failed to win a prestigious award he ranted on the airwaves: “It was fixed, it was a fraud”.

When Obama, whom he hates, won the Presidency He declared on two major television channels: “The election was fixed. It was a fraud.” Sound familiar?

Trump has been too occupied playing golf, appointing and then sacking members of his cabinet, often after a few weeks in post, to achieve anything worthy of mention.

Thank goodness Joe Biden will use Executive Orders immediately after his inauguration to dump most of Trump’s juvenile and harmful policies.

Brooking’s letter also informs us that UK deaths now exceed 100,000 from Covid 19. They don’t. The true figure is just over 82,000. UK abortions he tells us are running at 200,000. I checked, the official estimated figure is around 156,000.

I appreciate it is exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, to find anything good to say about a narcissistic, unpredictable and dangerous US President who has been economical with the truth for years but please we must not copy him by inventing facts.

Dr Barry Clayton

Thornton Cleveleys