If Jeremy Corbyn had a better grasp of Tudor history he would have been able to make a much stronger point with regard to Brexit and Parliament. There is an ironical similarity in Henry VIII, a Catholic at heart, breaking with Rome and Theresa May, a Remainer in the referendum, breaking with Europe. However, Henry did not rely on royal prerogative to do this, as Corbyn suggests; it was carried out legally through a succession of acts passed by the Reformation Parliament. The constitutional argument that an act of parliament is required for Brexit is an historical argument and thoroughly convincing. So let us get the history right, and not fall back on myth and popular misconceptions.

Michael Windross

Antwerp, Belgium

Jeremy Corbyn is guilty of an outrageous slur – on Henry VIII. While there is no doubting the King’s power and his “divine right”, all of the major changes made during his reign were enforced by acts of parliament. The divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the break with Rome, the dissolution of the monasteries, were all voted on and passed by MPs and the House of Lords. Professor GR Elton, in his book England Under the Tudors, says that Henry could not have “established his supremacy by proclamation”. When drawing comparisons Corbyn should have gone further, and said that May was more autocratic than Henry VIII.

Patrick Walsh

Eastbourne

Living a lie

Robert Fisk is right: we are obviously being defrauded by those we should trust. But how can we fight back if all our political representatives are morally and intellectually corrupt? The danger of a Messianic leader looms large.

Victor Lawrance

London N12

I am usually exasperated by Robert Fisk’s analysis but he’s nailed it at last: “We handed journalism to social media.” Except they stole it.

Mike Bor

London W2

Robert Fisk asks where he's heard this Nigel Farage “sneer” before: “You all laughed at me – well, I have to say, you’re not laughing now, are you?” He needs to familarise himself with the works of Bob Monkhouse. This is where most people with any familiarity with popular culture over the past 30 years will have heard this joke before. It wouldn't fit quite so well into his article though.

Graham Hawker

Address withheld

Russia has outsmarted the West

Hysteria has once again reached fever pitch. This time it is triggered by Russian cyber weaponry. We are told that even election results can be manipulated by Moscow. Then there is Putin's “fake news”. It is apparently so beguiling that it poses a threat to Western democratic discourse – quite an achievement for the leader of a relatively impoverished country.

Putin’s great crime is to have outsmarted the West. This says less about Putin's astuteness and more about the West's ineptitude. The right response is not a new Cold War but a root and branch rethink of Western foreign policy.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, we are not threatened by Iran, Assad's Syria, Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis. It's time to stop mollycoddling Saudi Arabia and Nato member Turkey, both of whom facilitated the emergence of Isis. As for Ukraine, the West made matters worse by not acknowledging that it was a classic example of a young state that didn't naturally command the allegiance of all its peoples; other examples are Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan.

Western foreign policy has, indeed, been exceptional but only in so far as it is characterised by serial failure.

Yugo Kovach

Winterborne Houghton, Dorset

Only one way to end conflict in Israel

Theresa may is right to criticise US Secretary of State John Kerry for his belated criticism of Israel. Israel did little to achieve the desired goal of a two-state solution based on the consensus legitimacy of the international community. However, why did it take Mr Kerry so long to acknowledge and grasp fundamental Palestinian grievances?

We are always being presented with an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine the future and break with the grim past, and for Jerusalem to symbolise a united city for followers of the three monotheistic faiths. As King Abdullah II of Jordan put it: “The solution to the conflict lies in an end of the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on national Palestinian soil.”

Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob

London NW2

What price Scotland?

I agree that it is unfair for Edinburgh residents to suffer higher accommodation costs than the rest of Scotland. A level playing field is obviously the most desirable solution. In which case, perhaps Scotland would give up the Barnett Formula, which subsidises Scottish residents at the expense of the rest of the United Kingdom? Free markets being what they are, perhaps then rents would be lower?

Tom Callaghan

Dubai

Paul Monaghan, SNP MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, has called Scotland and Catalonia “two great nations” whose “rebirth” means the end of their “subjugation”. He tells the Catalans that “Scotland is with you”. I have two questions relating to this.

First, what makes Monaghan think that he has the right to speak for Scotland? I am aware that this is something that SNP politicians do routinely, but what is the justification for this presumptuousness? Second, does Monaghan seriously think that his avid and vocal support for Catalan separatism helps the cause of his leader, whose aim is to win the support of European states for a separate Scotland in Europe? No wonder Spain has poured cold water on her hopes.

Monaghan has form, appearing several times on the Kremlin-backed TV station RT and berating President Obama for expelling Russian diplomats for Russian interference in the US election. Are these antics what the good people of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross elected him to do?

Jill Stephenson

Edinburgh

Healing the health service

I read with interest about the difficulties facing GPs meeting the health needs of patients. As the chair of a patient participation group of an inner city medical practice, I am aware of the serious problems faced when trying to deliver appropriate healthcare. The patients registered with our practice speak more than 28 languages and have a range of needs. None of this is allowed for in the funding. Some services that were provided and funded have had funding withdrawn. At the last meeting, the patients group was informed that up to £200,000 of funding is being withdrawn due to the redirection of money to areas with a higher average age group.

I saw the NHS England response too. The extra money being quoted will not benefit our practice. It is a highly selective in its distribution. The future looks bleak. Traditional services – for example, ear syringing – will have to cease. If the practice worked to contract it would mean sending patients to hospitals for blood samples and other services withdrawn. I fear that we are being softened up for more privatisation and an end to a free service. If we do not protest and fight, we may well see an end to the delivery of the health care that we seem to cherish.

David Cemlyn

Bristol

I find Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard's classification of lumps and bleeding as non-urgent medical cases profoundly disturbing. These should be classified as urgent and there should be a designated GP in the practice on perhaps a rota basis to see the urgent cases and triage them to the appropriate clinic. The hospital service provides special sessions for breast lumps for example and for upper gastrointestinal-intestinal bleeding. Patients can be dealt with very rapidly once they are set on the right path. It would be quite possible for a suitably trained nurse to take on the triage role in GP setting.

Kenneth Taylor, consultant physician

Birmingham

In memory of journalist Mike Nicholson

After I was shot by a Serbian sniper in besieged Dubrovnik in November 1991 (on Remembrance Sunday, by chance) while covering the conflict for The Independent, I was evacuated with other wounded on a boat which first docked at Herceg Novi in Montenegro. Mike Nicholson, whom I'd known for years, happened to be on the quay, covering the arrival of the wounded for ITN. My left leg had turned dark blue, with a dum-dum (explosive) bullet still in it. Putting me before his story, Mike flew with me to Belgrade and got me on a Swissair flight to London, where my wife met me and took me to the West Middlesex Hospital near my home. The main body of the bullet was removed, although fragments remain.

I can safely say that Mike Nicholson saved, if not my life, at least my leg, which might have had to be amputated had I not been operated on in time. A gentleman journalist of the old school. Rest in peace, Mike.

Phil Davison, former Independent reporter

Richmond upon Thames

Reasons to be cheerful

By common consent, 2016 has been a challenging year; a year of disasters, what with Brexit, the election of Donald Trump as US President-elect and a litany of celebrities who have sadly passed away.

It is therefore often difficult to remember that parallel to this we are living through somewhat of an arc of progress. We are living in a world that is getting richer, with the number of people living in extreme poverty falling below 10 per cent for the first time. Indeed, since 1990 almost 1.1 billion have escaped extreme poverty. World hunger also reached its lowest point for 25 years in 2016.

For the first time ever the death penalty has become illegal in more than half of the world’s countries and the world got healthier, with a World Health Organisation report showing that since 2000 global malaria deaths have declined by 60 per cent. Since their peak a decade ago Aids-related deaths have fallen by 45 per cent and infant mortality has halved since 1990.

Taiwan is on the verge of becoming the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage and Tanzania banned child marriage.

For many 2016 may have been seen as the worst of times, but let us not forget it has been on the best of times too. So let’s not be too pessimistic as we enter 2017.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

More reasons to be cheerful

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