IN his latest letter, John Dawson manages to set an almost Panglossian tone (Some views contribute little to debate’, Craven Herald letters, January 28).

He proffers, just as Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces 100,000 UK deaths due to Covid-19, “.… there may have been some mistakes ....” by way of explanation.

Many years ago when I studied at the Technical University of Aachen, Germany, I became acquainted with several South Korean students and had nothing but respect for their diligence and civility.

Today, against the UK’s population of over 66 million, South Korea has a population of over 51 million people.

If Mr Dawson and the PM are to be believed, it might be expected that South Korea has so far suffered some 77,000 Covid-19 fatalities.

How many has that nation in fact suffered? On the day of the PM’s announcement, South Korea had registered 1371 Covid-19 deaths. That is less than 2 per cent of what should be expected, based on the UK’s ‘performance’.

It is a characteristic of intelligent systems that they self-correct. Human suffering aside, if in its new more insular post-Brexit position the UK government wishes to exercise influence on those who will shape the future, it needs to improve its game dramatically.

Richard Sykes

Skipton