Britain should lead international aid effort for Sri Lanka

• Ex-British Diplomat Sir Peter Heap says Britain must do more to help a fellow Commonwealth country in  desperate need

THE GUARDIAN: The UK Government’s response to the situation in Sri Lanka is shameful. People there are starving and dying for lack of medicines; they cannot get to work or move about for lack of petrol; electric power is scarce.

Regardless of how they got to this situation (misrule by the Rajapaksas and the legacy of the country having been ripped apart by a 30-year violent insurrection), Britain should take the lead in providing humanitarian help to a fellow Commonwealth country in desperate need (not even counting that we ruled them for 150 years without their consent, for which we owe them something back).

We should lead, very quickly, an international relief effort, perhaps through the Commonwealth. If those Brexit promises of becoming a world leader in almost everything and making new and cementing old friendships once we left the EU, are to mean anything, then we should not be ignoring the present situation. The Government merely says it is helping through our contributions to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. That is nowhere near enough.