Whatever the rights and wrong of the recent uproar in parliament and the actions of the Speaker, let’s not forget that the overwhelmingly important issue of massed slaughter, genocide and war crimes in Gaza, as evidenced by the International Court of Justice decision, has been completely sidelined by partisan party politics from all sides.

This immoral sideshow of avoiding the real issue also has significant geopolitical impacts in the whole middle east region and increasingly beyond. What a national embarrassment they all are.

It all came about allegedly due to a major concern about the potential or real intimidation of decision-makers. A quote from Home Secretary James Cleverly, which I very much agree with, is that we can’t have a situation where our democracy is distorted by fear and intimidation of our decision-makers.

However, that immediately made me think about vastly wealthy and powerful corporate lobbyists from the fossil fuel, junk food and tobacco industries - along with the likes of disgraced MP Owen Paterson. By the same measure, why has it long been a reality to have extreme power and wealth distorting democracy?

Mike Potter, Pickering