Readers have reacted with anger to images of Foreign Secretary David Lammy and US Vice-President JD Vance fishing together at Chevening, the foreign secretary’s official country residence, while the conflict in Gaza continues. The front page of Saturday’s Guardian showed the two politicians laughing as they fished for the media, alongside a headline about the planned Israeli takeover of Gaza City, which critics say will lead to more killing and forced displacement of Palestinians.
Stuart Finegan of Lewes, East Sussex, wrote: “History will record both men’s participation in this man-made human disaster by the Israeli government, but will either of them actually care? I don’t think so.” He noted that both politicians could influence their leaders to stop Israel’s attacks on innocent Palestinians.
Bernie Evans of Liverpool compared the scene to a BBC programme, writing: “I can see it now, the BBC blurb for its new programme – Lammy & Vance: Gone Fishing. Wonder at the beautiful Cotswolds countryside while the boys jest about ‘bring[ing] greater peace’ to the world. Laugh out loud as JD and Dave spend hours fishing for fun, while wars rage, children are starved and their governments do nothing.”
Rev Robert Titley of London suggested that if the pair had attended the ancient parish church of St Botolph at Chevening on Sunday, they might have heard a reading from the Book of Common Prayer that includes Jesus’s warning: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
