Readers' letters - May 25

Yet another act of murder on innocent people and still I cannot understand the reasoning behind it.

No doubt we will have the conspiracy theorists peddling their crackpot ideas, ultra-racist (EDL) types seeking to make ideological gain and those who think they know all the answers and blame this act of evil on anything from religion to the war in Iraq.

In my view, there are no excuses. To blame religion takes responsibility away from the murderer and is offensive to peaceful people with a faith. Take away religion and evil people will still find an excuse for their acts.

This murderer was not a ‘radical’ (makes him sound like a protester not a murderer), to call him a Muslim (which he described himself) is an insult to normal Muslims who have nothing to do with such evil.

And anyway, why should we pander to these types and call them what they want to be called? This was what he was: a serial killer of innocents, including an eight-year-old girl. What a coward.

These types want us to end up like them, full of hatred and bitterness.

No thanks.

And I refuse to feel fear either, their other aim.

While we saw evil that night in Manchester, we also saw good.

The homeless man who pulled nails out of a little girl’s face, taxi drivers (Muslims and Sikhs amongst them) offering their services for free to help those caught up in the attacks, Mancunians offering up spare rooms ... the list goes on.

And these people – of many faiths and none – are the ones who inspire me and make me feel there is still hope for the future.

Jane

via email

Come and volunteer

As Volunteers Week approaches (June 1-7), the annual celebration of the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK, Diabetes UK will be raising awareness of the huge contribution made by the hundreds of people who volunteer with us.

We are also encouraging others to get involved and make a difference for people living with diabetes.

Diabetes is the fastest growing health threat today.

In the UK, there are more than 4.5 million people who have diabetes, of which over one million people have Type 2 diabetes but don’t know they have it and around 11.9 million adults are at increased risk of developing Type 2.

Its impact and complications can be devastating, causing blindness, amputations, even early death.

Our volunteers really are at the centre of everything we do. They not only help us support people affected by diabetes in communities up and down the country, they also help us raise vital funds to fund a huge range of research projects. In addition, they campaign with us to improve diabetes care, and so much more.

So we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our brilliant volunteers. We’re grateful for the contribution they make and without them we couldn’t achieve the amazing work we do in the North West.

If you would like to get involved with volunteering for Diabetes UK, contact: n.westvolunteering@

diabetes.org.uk

Stephen Ryan

Head of the North

Diabetes UK

Go slightly left, not far right

If Theresa May swore on oath, I just might believe her that she is going to look after working class families.

But be very careful, we all know she wanted to stay in Europe, so in the back of her mind, like Thatcher, is she thinking, right, I will give them hard Brexit because I can always do a U-turn and say, well, it’s you who voted for Brexit?

Tories have never done anything for working-class people and never will.

I dislike some, not all, of Jeremy Corbyn’s politics and it’s about time we went a bit to the left instead of too far right.

J Newall

via email