Letter: The message to President Joe Biden should be clear - thank you for what you have done for your people but you now risk undoing your achievements

It is always worrying when something is wrong in America. We need a strong USA to lead the West. It seemed, a few years ago, that populism had overtaken some established English-speaking countries. Johnson's peculiar behaviour here, Trump in the USA, an Australian prime minister who appeared untroubled by climate change. Calm has returned all round, but maybe only superficially in America. Like a self-righting lifeboat, political debate in the UK and Australia is back on an even keel. This is not to ignore unionist concerns in Northern Ireland.

However, on the wider scale of which NI is also part, extremists and dissemblers are once again recognised for what they are. Jacob Rees-Mogg is out of government, Jeremy Corbyn could soon be out of parliament. But America continues to torture itself, and it has a president unfit to run for a second term. Donald Trump is an injured political monster. Guns, greed and misinformation increasingly define the country. Millions of decent Americans, the clear vast majority, don't seem able to translate their decency into a political process because of the choices offered to them. Putin will be hoping for a return of Donald Trump at the next presidential election, all the more likely if Biden refuses to retire. Although a second Trump presidency would be terrifying, other Republicans are less scary. Equally, there are many Democrats who are less feeble and set in their ways than Biden. He is coming to Northern Ireland soon. The message to him should be clear. Thank you for what you have done for your people. But, you now risk undoing your achievements.

There's a phrase from political history, used against a corrupt parliament by Oliver Cromwell, a failing Neville Chamberlain, and lately a disgraced Boris Johnson. It is ‘In the name of God, go.’ This is now an appropriate message to Biden.

John Gemmell, Wem, Shropshire