Letter: Disruptors are gaining traction due to failure of traditional leaders

Canadians would argue that prime minister Trudeau just resigned for domestic reasons. I suspect that he is taking himself out of the picture because he fears that he will not be able to cope with Mr Trump.

Mr Trump is threatening Canada with tariffs from day one of his presidency. He even disparages the country by suggesting that it should become the 51st state.

He refers to "the great state of Canada", as Americans would refer to "the great state of Iowa", or "the great state of Texas". He seems to be only half-joking.

He certainly suggests that the country struggles to defend itself, but he may have a point there.

At the same time, president Trump is saying that he wants control of Greenland, that vast, empty territory that is fortunate enough, at present, to be part of the Kingdom of Denmark, one of the most benign and lovely countries on the face of the planet.

Many, perhaps most, of Greenland's tiny population want independence from Denmark. They should be very careful indeed what they wish for.

Mr Trump is only causing confusion, but Putin, and even the Chinese, are circling Greenland's icy waters like the toxic Greenland sharks that lurk in its depths.

If Greenland breaks away from Denmark, it would almost deserve its fate, but we would not deserve the inconvenience of having to witness it.

Meanwhile, the rest of us can only watch and hope as Donald Trump redraws the map of Eastern Europe, in collaboration with Putin, as the Ukraine conflict becomes frozen, perhaps with a new, unstable, demilitarized zone. We will see.

We can reason with president Trump, and he has his good points. Elon Musk is different.

On his mouthpiece X, Musk is insulting the leaders of the UK and Germany, two of the three most important and faithful allies that the US has. He is not stopping there.

Many years ago, I was lucky enough to speak to Jess Phillips MP, when I was agitating about homelessness in Birmingham. She is a kind and remarkably decent person, yet Musk has said horrible things about her, including that she should be in prison. It's almost surreal.

We are in difficult times, but we have done it to ourselves. These disruptors have gained traction because of the failure of traditional leaders in the West. It's not just, or even primarily, about cost of living issues.

The UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and others are all struggling with populism because of a failure to adequately control immigration. I am a Liberal Democrat voter, but even I can see that.

Musk pulls stunts by carrying a sink around and saying "let that sink in". Well, we have Musk and President Trump unbound because of insufficiently controlled immigration - let that sink in.

John Gemmell, Wem, Shropshire