'Monroe Doctrine echoes in Trump’s approach to Europe, says reader' - Your Letters plus a Bridgnorth family’s festive table in a 1944 picture from the archive

Trump’s policy follows history

​I see similarities between the doctrine outlined by President Monroe in the early 1800s and Trump's policy towards Europe.

Basically, Monroe specified that the incessant wars in the old countries of Europe were their affair and nothing to do with the USA. Further more. the controls of the old colonial powers of Spain and Portugal in South America and the Caribbean were to be disabled and new republics created.

Perhaps the final stroke in this was The Spanish-American War, a conflict between the United States and Spain that effectively ended Spain’s role as a colonial power in the New World. The United States emerged from the war as a world power with significant territorial claims stretching from the Caribbean to the Pacific

The late entry of USA into the 1st World War was also a sign of the doctrine. One might also argue that something similar occurred in the 2nd World War

I believe that Trump is (quite rightly) resurrecting this in his America First doctrine and insistence that the European nations provide their own security rather than relying on Uncle Sam. Furthermore, as with the Spanish/American war. Trump will seek to pick over the bones of the Russo/Ukraine conflict and make economic gains for USA. And why I ask wouldn't he?

Alan M Etheridge, Sedgley

Panto politics is nothing new

WG Thomas (letter 5 December) takes umbrage at a pantomime having "brought politics" into the production by naming a rat "Nigel Farage". I am tempted to say that I acknowledge the offence that this must have caused to the rodent community, but there is absolutely nothing new about introducing contemporary political references into theatre productions.

Indeed, this is something of a tradition in performances of Gilbert and Sullivan light operas. I remember a performance of Iolanthe about 55 years ago in which we were told that "titles will ennoble then even Cannock councilmen", and a bright young clergyman singing a parody of the appointment of "the ruler of the Queen's navy" in celebration of the appointment of the Rt Revd David Hope as "bishop of the Wakefield see". And how about suggesting that somebody should be executed? Another fine tradition is to amend the Lord High Executioner's "little list" in The Mikado to include contemporary figures. In the televised version with Lesley Garrett and Bonaventura Bottone (1986), those for the chop included "bishops who don't believe in God and chief constables who do" - a clear dig at the then Bishop of Durham and Chief Constable of Greater Manchester. 

Back in the 1930s, Charlie Chaplin's representation of the "great dictator" Adenoid Hinkel may have reminded some viewers of a contemporary German statesman.

Maybe WG Thomas needs to lighten up a bit.

Alan Harrison, Bloxwich

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