WATCHING the news reports about the junior government minister, Mark Field, attacking the female Greenpeace protester at the Mansion House dinner in London, I want to know why no-one went to her aid.

Why did all the men sit there and watch this bullying, violent attack and do nothing? How could it be permissible for anyone to let such behaviour continue without making an effort to intervene?

I’m disgusted with them all for letting this happen without any of them attempting to stop it.

- Lesley P. Lyon, Glasgow

THERE appears to be more than one version of the recent events at the Mansion House dinner in London.

It is quite possible that Mark Field was just trying to be helpful to a woman who had inadvertently strayed into the wrong venue.

As she approached, he gallantly leapt to his feet and, shaking her warmly by the throat, escorted her to the appropriate exit.

Or it may be that, fearing a terrorist attack from a woman in a red dress, who was possibly hiding a possibly concealing a machete or milk carton about her person, Mr Field resolved to put his foot down with a firm hand and bravely attempt a citizen’s arrest.

This shows that Conservative MPs are more than mere money-grabbers. They are at least ready to seize control where the situation demands.

Mr Field has simply misconstrued ‘Carpe Diem’ ( ‘Seize the Day’) as ‘Seize the Dame’.

- James Stevenson, Auchterarder

DR Gerald Edwards (‘We should give Boris Johnson a fair hearing and wish him well’, Herald Letters, June 22) bizarrely seeks to defend the aggressive actions of MP Mark Field towards a climate change protester as an upholding of the rule of law.

Dr Edwards lapses into a familiar curmudgeonly diatribe regarding the state of our society today and laments the fact that people appear to be abusing their rights in a manner he deems to be irresponsible.

He reminds me of typical contributors to the Times newspaper in 1913 when an array of privileged, middle-class men wrote to express their outrage at peaceful Suffragist protesters in London and believed that their democracy was going to hell in a handcart.

Peaceful protest is a fundamental right within a legitimate democracy.

Mansion House, as the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, and which is regularly used for high-profile government events, enjoys the reputation as one of the most secure buildings in the capital.

It is inconceivable that the climate-change protester could have been carrying a weapon or, as some fantasists have suggested, toxic liquid.

Examining the video of the incident, it is clear that Mr Field reacts improperly due to intolerance and anger rather than through an effort to quash terrorist activity.

Had the protester been a man then perhaps Mr Field would have exercised some self- control and left the situation in the hands of police.

His actions were disproportionate to the proceedings, as the Prime Minister’s own reaction and his subsequent party suspension bear out.

Where Dr Edwards sees anarchy, most others will see the democratic process at work during this precarious time when those values and freedoms are threatened by the mainstreaming of intolerant, far-right views and actions.

In his defence, it is the first time I have read a letter by the good doctor that does not lay the blame for all of our national, or indeed, international trials and tribulations on Ms Sturgeon and the Scottish Government.

Is he warming to them, I wonder?

- Owen Kelly, Stirling