Sir, – I was surprised to read the British ambassador's letter in The Irish Times reminding us that an American senator once said that the first casualty of war is truth (Letters, February 16th).
Britain is not currently at war but truth has certainly been a casualty of the current UK government. I have sympathy for members of the British foreign service who must fulfil their duties loyally at a time when credibility and truthfulness are not hallmarks of their government, but until there is a change of government in the UK, this is not the time to remind others of the concept of truthfulness. – Yours, etc,
PAVEL MARIANSKI,
Dungarvan,
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Co Waterford.
Sir, – For once, I find myself agreeing with Paul Johnston, the British ambassador to Ireland, when he calls for an end to Russian aggression against Ukraine and to its campaign of disinformation towards us all.
But what about the influence of dirty Russian money flowing ever deeper through the City of London?
In 2018, the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee highlighted this issue and warned that the UK is “not serious about confronting the full spectrum of Vladimir Putin’s offensive measures”.
Yet little has been done to tackle Russian dirty money and corruption in London.
Dare one ask whether the current Tory government is so compromised by the large donations it has received from Russian donors that it is too conflicted to act?
It is time that the Russian laundromat is shut down in the UK, otherwise any calls for action by the UK on the Russia/Ukraine issue will be met in Moscow with the same level of derision as Liz Truss, the British foreign secretary, encountered on her visit there last week. – Yours, etc,
DAVID O’FLANAGAN,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
A chara, – It was with some bemusement that I read the British ambassador’s comments about the disinformation campaign purportedly being undertaken by the dastardly Russians.
Is this the same Britain, I wondered, which gave us the mythical weapons of mass destruction which were used to justify the invasion of Iraq?
Or the same Britain which reached an agreement with Libya that if Libya demolished its military defence capability then Britain would guarantee not to invade it, only to renege on that agreement a couple of years later?
Libya, of course, is now an open-air slave market, and totally dysfunctional as a state.
The ambassador’s letter seems to rest on the assumption that readers will accept that Old Britannia never lies, a proposition which I think the ambassador will find hard to sell here. – Is mise,
EOIN Ó MURCHÚ,
Baile Átha Cliath 22.