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SIR – As a youngster I was taught that I would be innocent until proved guilty. Some years ago, the then Director of Public Prosecutions told the Crown Prosecution Service that those alleging crime should be called victims and believed by the police. This resulted in senior members of the public being charged on the word of a fantasist. We now have progressed to guilty as alleged until proved innocent. The Royal family and our Prime Minister are examples of this reversal of the presumption to guilty until proved innocent. When will we revert to innocent until proved guilty? His Honour Lord...

Dressing windows on Oxford Street in London before shops reopen on April 12 Credit: Yui Mok/PA SIR – In Britain, 79 people out of the 20  million given the AstraZeneca vaccine developed thrombosis (in some cases, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis) – a rate of four in a million. By comparison, thrombosis can develop while taking the contraceptive pill at a rate of one to five women in 10,000 per year. Women who are pregnant or who have just given birth develop thromboses at a rate of one to two per 1,000. Out of a population of more than 21  million men and women between the ages of 20 an...

Bristol, 22 March 2021 (Shutterstock) Andy Marsh, the Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset, is quitting his post early after criticism of his policing of protests in Bristol. After Black Lives Matter supporters last year toppled the statue of Edward Colton, the slave trader and philanthropist, Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was reported to have given Marsh a dressing-down. Bristol was the scene of public disorder again this year, when on March 21 a “Kill the Bill” protest against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill degenerated into a riot in which police vans wer...

Boris Johnson at yesterday's conference Credit: wpa pool/getty SIR – The Government is at risk of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Having won almost universal praise for securing and administering millions of vaccinations, rather than just finishing the task, it appears to be hell-bent on introducing a complex mixture of rules, tests and apps, which will lose it the support it has rightly gained. Graham Blashill   SIR – As Covid-19 dies out in this country due to both vaccination and natural immunity – particularly among the unvaccinated young – it is incredible that the Go...

15 March 2021 • 12:02am A well-wisher lays a bunch of flowers to honour Sarah Everard before the vigil at Clapham Common on Saturday night Credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP SIR – Two wrongs do not make a right. The vigil for Sarah Everard at Clapham Common should not have taken place when Covid-19 is still rampant. However, the police response, which included tackling women to the ground and physically overpowering them, was equally wrong. The police were doing exactly what the women were protesting against. Mick Ferrie Mawnan Smith, Cornwall SIR – The policing at Clapham Common is receivi...