I THOUGHT long and hard about whether it was worth responding to Phil Lee, Philip Dent and Anthony Bradley (Craven Herald letters, June 18) regarding their criticisms of my defence of Dominic Cummings and our Government. I concluded that a somewhat shorter final comment would suffice about honesty and consistency.

Readers of all three letters can't fail to see the political opposition of the writers to the Government, including Brexit and Cummings in particular.

That's not to say that their comments aren't valid, but an admission about being partisan would have been more honest.

All the letters also showed remarkable consistency, for the most part, in recalling 'exactly' the sequence of events surrounding Cummings' actions, compared to the explanation he had given.

In particular, the accounts of Cummings' trip out to ensure his eyesight was alright for the long and urgent journey back to London were mentioned, yet one letter claimed he travelled on a 30 mile 'excursion', another 40 miles and another 60 miles. Draw your own conclusions.

Let me say finally that I can speak of London with some knowledge, even with some lingering affection, having been born there and having lived there as a younger man for 23 years.

However, I'm bitterly sad to say that it has changed out of all recognition under the ideology of Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan.

Living there, when you are as prominent in the Conservative Government as Cummings, is clearly a 'living nightmare' of press and political activist intrusion.

I would have had no hesitation to get away from there, as the rules allowed, to fully protect a vulnerable family, in the way his particular circumstances allowed.

I trust this will put an end to this particular debate, since we have many equally serious matters to contend with in our communities, which aren't helped by the added problem of the politically motivated violence on our streets and attempts to subvert democracy and erase our history!

Let's all stand together and support each other in these difficult times ahead!

D.Brooks

Embsay