How would B Jones like it if he, his friends and his family were shipped from Brighton to somewhere to the north of Scotland, depriving them of their homes and livelihoods, indeed their whole way of life, because the American and British governments wanted to set up a military base in Sussex?

This is the position the Diego Garcians are currently in.

The British and American governments owe them compensation either in money or, better still, land, on which they can exercise the right to their way of life, which largely consists of fishing and simple agriculture. The latter is what they prefer.

Why should powerful nations such as America and Britain push people around?

I hope the Diego Garcians take their case to the United Nations and have their rights enforced by sanctions that really bite.

It is not taxpayers who should suffer but those making money out of wars and military bases on both sides of the Atlantic.

Although I am 75, I am still a hard-working British taxpayer who is willing to pay for justice to be done to my fellow subjects of the Queen.

-Rev John Webster, Hove