What are you first, a person in your own right or a political puppet? I also ask the same question of your delightful fiancée. So, ask the Obamas to your wedding because you’d like them to be there, and don’t invite others whom protocol suggests “should” be there. Thank you.

Patrick

Bucknell

I do hope that Prince Harry tells the Government advisors that it is HIS wedding and he will invite whoever the bloody well he likes!

W Sandys

Oxon

Nick Clegg doesn’t deserve a knighthood

I strongly protest the intention to bestow upon Nick Clegg any form of recognition, and especially a knighthood, for what he has done. He deserves nothing and I am astounded that he is included in the New Year’s Honours list!

S Addy

Address supplied

Libs and Lib Dems have canvassed for decades for the introduction of the proportional representation system which is the only system that delivers proper democracy, and was the only system that would have gotten them closer to democratically elected power.

Yet this ill-educated Del Boy decided to trash every campaign the liberals ever got elected upon, and threw in his tawdry cent for the ridiculous alternative voting system... what a politically naive and irredeemable mistake.

How Sheffield managed to accept his representation beggars belief. How he repeatedly got voted in is a mystery.

How he gets a knighthood beggars belief too, but does provide further evidence that someone backs him from a powerful position, and it certainly isn’t a long-standing liberal voter or anyone who believes in democracy.

Margaret George

Leeds

Cannot believe this man is nominated for a knighthood after all the damage he has done to the Liberal party. He went back on every promise he made.

Please do whatever you can to stop this man receiving a knighthood. Stand up and vote please.

JC

Birmingham

It’s important to prioritise respect and understanding

Universities should take their position in society as vehicles of tolerance, benevolence and free speech and the eschewal of discord and communal violence.

We live in a world riven by religious enmity, social chaos, political upheaval and economic uncertainty. Free speech does not mean giving our tongues a free ride to say offensive, aggressive, insulting and offensive things, like attacking Muslims or denying the Holocaust.

What we need most is a plethora of voices and ideas that counter extremist narratives in our midst, and that allow communities to flourish in an aura of mutual respect and understanding.

Dr Munjed Fraid Al Qutob

London NW2

The Rohingya crisis is still happening – why is no one helping?

When I visited Rohingya refugee camps earlier this month, I saw smoke in Myanmar’s Rakhine state from the Bangladesh border. Rohingyas still continued to leave Rakhine state to Bangladesh in hope of shelter. I spoke to Rohingyas and they told me that killings, arson and raping of women still continue in Rakhine state despite international pressure.

This is outrageous. On the one side, Myanmar is negotiating with Bangladesh to solve the crisis, and on the other hand they are continuing their ethnic cleansing. Most of the Rohingyas I spoke to said they would not want to return to Myanmar as they feel they would be killed if they returned at this time.

The Rohingya crisis is a tale of failure by the international community to stop a state committing ethnic cleansing. Despite reports from rights groups that Myanmar military forces were involved in systematic killings, and raping Rohingya women, the world did not see any effective step from countries which speak for human rights and against genocide. This is a shame to the human race.

The international community should send a strong message to Myanmar and its allies that systematic ethnic cleansing will not be tolerated. If we fail to do so, other racist and repressive states will follow Myanmar. The whole world will be a dangerous place if this happens.

Mushfique Wadud

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough

In her Christmas message the Queen insisted that her “thoughts and prayers” were with the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire.

The majority of the Grenfell Tower survivors are still waiting to be re-housed but they are not so much in the Queen’s “thoughts and prayers” for her to actually offer any of them a roof from the British monarchy’s £13bn property empire.