Letters: Splits over Israel raise fresh questions about Labour’s fitness to govern

SIR – The fact that some Labour MPs are not supporting Israel should be a warning to us all (“Starmer hit by rebellion over ceasefire call”, report, October 26). Though Sir Keir Starmer declares his backing for Israel, how can Labour be trusted on national security if other MPs oppose him on this issue? 

A Labour government could also damage the UK’s relationship with Israel – an important partner – and the consequences would be serious.

Hannah Hunt
Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire 

SIR – The Labour Party’s mask is slipping. The anti-Israel views of some MPs and grassroots members show they still stand with Jeremy Corbyn.

John Kennedy
Hornchurch, Essex

SIR – Hamas deliberately started a conflict that it knew it could not win. It also knew that the consequences for the Palestinian people would be catastrophic. But now, as it hides behind the skirts of women and the innocence of children, much of the world does not condemn Hamas as it should, but instead – perversely – attacks Israel.

Patrick Kelly
Chippenham, Wiltshire

SIR – Coverage of the conflict in the Middle East has seen the terms Palestinian, Israeli, Hamas, Jew and Muslim intertwined.

In the UK, the Labour Party is put under pressure by Muslim councillors to take a pro-Palestinian line, and that pressure would also apply if Labour formed the government of the day.

In a democracy, one would hope that no religious group could ever have influence enough to coerce a government. Perhaps for the roughly 37 per cent of Britons who claim no religious affiliation, now is the time to consider the debate for a secular UK.

Norma Murray 
Ulverston, Cumbria

SIR – By December 2019 Labour had written itself off as a political force, mainly by its refusal to accept the result of the Brexit referendum, but also due to its commitment to socialism’s extreme Left. 

Having romped to victory on the back of this county’s most popular political personality since Margaret Thatcher and his determination to disengage from membership of the EU, Tory MPs have since contrived to render their own party unelectable. 

Fair enough. It would, however, be gratifying to see evidence that Labour has not only some policies but also one or two personalities of sufficient heft to attract my interest.

Brian H Varrall
Alton, Hampshire

SIR – Every time Sir Keir makes a pronouncement these days, I’m reminded of the pushmi-pullyu in the Dr Dolittle film.

Brian Thorne
Shillingstone, Dorset

Clandon clanger

SIR – I greatly respect Neil MacGregor, but I believe he is wrong to echo the National Trust’s view that Clandon Park should not be restored (Comment, October 25). 

He refers to the unsatisfactory re-creation of the exterior of the royal palace in Berlin – a very different case from the interior of Clandon. He should have considered Uppark, that other National Trust mansion that was gutted by fire but wonderfully restored: in the words of Simon Jenkins, a previous Trust chairman, it is “more than a house restored. It is an argument won.” Or at least it should have been. 

True, in Uppark’s case, much of the contents were saved. However, in addition to a complete room, “a significant proportion” of the contents of Clandon were saved, including its chief glory, a Baroque state bed. Moreover, the main feature of the house was the entrance hall, which was “unquestionably among the grandest of all 18th-century interiors”, according to John Cornforth, the country house expert. Clandon’s marvellous plasterwork could be exactly replicated, just like at Uppark. 

Mr MacGregor writes that leaving Clandon Park as a bleak ruin will be to “reanimate” it, but surely it will only tell a story of devastation.

Edmund Gray 
Former government inspector of historic buildings
Oxford

SIR – Neil MacGregor’s piece reminds me of a comparable example to the shell of Clandon Park: Witley Court in Worcestershire (cared for by English Heritage), which I became familiar with in the 1960s as an architectural student.

The massive Italianate mansion was gutted by fire in 1937 and left as a ruin. Since then, all stages of the building’s historic development have been on view, from the remaining fragment of the original house’s medieval undercroft, to the substantial core of the 17th-century house and all the later extensions, complete with fragments of 19th-century plasterwork.

Paul Loxton Edwards
Canterbury, Kent

Tories on the doorstep

SIR – Chastened by Andrew Bond’s letter (October 25), in which he noted how he had never received a Conservative Party pamphlet through his letterbox in all his 82 years, I immediately resolved to visit him on returning to Somerset this Friday. 

The plot thickened when I discovered that your correspondent is not the only resident of Wells with the name Andrew Bond. Most curious of all is that every one of Wells’s Andrew Bonds has been kind enough either to return one of our surveys or speak to us on the doorstep. 

No matter – I shall visit them all, and this time endeavour to be more memorable. 

James Heappey MP (Con)
London SW1

Early music movers

SIR – I was surprised at the omission of the late David Munrow in Nicholas Kenyon’s otherwise comprehensive article about the early music movement (Features, October 20).

Munrow and Christopher Hogwood founded the Early Music Consort in 1967, some years before Hogwood assembled his Academy of Ancient Music, or Trevor Pinnock formed the English Concert. 

Surely it could be argued that Munro lit the touch paper of early music performance.

Alexandra Rous
London SE23

A landlord’s lament

SIR – I’m astonished that Michael Gove has delayed his ban of the no-fault evictions clause in the Renters Reform Bill (Letters, October 26), as doing so is the first sensible move his department – or the Conservative Party – has made for a long time.

George Osborne started the rot in 2016 by cutting tax relief on mortgage payments, and ending the 10 per cent “wear and tear” allowance. Admittedly these were generous incentives and, as a long-term landlord, I was surprised they had lasted so long. However, as it was the era of ultra-low interest rates, buying properties to rent out was still an attractive investment.

Today, the steep rise in interest rates and the decline in the housing market has seen this situation reverse. Rates are now above 5 per cent and there is no short-term incentive for anyone to enter the buy-to-let market. 

Like many investors who foresaw trouble ahead, I have sold 75 per cent of my small portfolio over the past five years. This reduction in the number of rentable properties has seen an inevitable spike in rents. You quote a 6.2 per cent rise in London (Comment, October 25), but I would put it closer to 30 per cent.

It’s a dreadful situation for the young, who have little chance of getting on the housing ladder, yet are seeing their rents rocket.

Rupert Godfrey
Heytesbury, Wiltshire

Bungalow workout

SIR – Jacqueline McCrindle (Letters, October 25) asks how to achieve stair-climbing benefits in a bungalow.

I use a 12-inch platform and step up with alternate legs. You can use a metronome to set the rate, increasing the speed as you progress.

A great advantage over going up and down a flight of stairs is that you can watch television at the same time.

R N Pierrepoint Sykes
Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – At a retirement seminar for London Underground staff a few years ago, a speaker warned of the perils of “bungalow knee”.

I recently moved to one, but it has three high steps to the front door, which will hopefully negate the issue.

Ann Fraser
Dingwall, Ross-shire

SIR – I live in a ground-floor flat but have a small plastic kitchen stool, on which I have started doing 20 steps, up and down, twice a day. I intend to increase the number of steps in stages.

Kate Walkington
Reading, Berkshire

The lasting value of a Woolworths eucalyptus

SIR – I was interested to read that Edinburgh University had spent more than £1,000 on eucalyptus trees for its principal’s grace-and-favour home (report, October 24). 

In the late 1970s our local Woolworths store sold plants. One day I saw a very small, sickly-looking eucalyptus plant for 25p. I bought it, planted it in the garden and it started to thrive. When we moved to a new-build house shortly afterwards, we dug up the plant and took it with us. 

Four years later, when we moved to another area of the country, the tree was a fine specimen that had reached the height of the house. Obviously this time it had to stay. Not bad value for 25p.

Janice Clay
Haslemere, Surrey 
 

A lucky mother’s handwritten birthday letter

SIR – Valerie Crane’s letter (October 25) reminded me of a handwritten one sent to my parents by my 10-year-old brother from prep school:

“Dear M & D

I hope you are well, because I am. 

M, it is your birthday, if you go upstairs to my room, on my bedside table you will find an old yellow comb which I don’t want anymore. That is your present.

Love Charles.”

Christina Pyemont
Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – Our son’s first letter written from prep school to home went thus: “They told me I had to write a letter home. This is it.”

Lynn Pearson 
Northend, Warwickshire

SIR – Many years ago, while at boarding school, I received two memorable letters from my father. 

The first read: “Why don’t you write and give me a chance not to reply?”

The second: “I don’t wish to be overly inquisitive, but are you still alive?”

Alistair Ripper
Exeter, Devon

SIR – Having lost my mother to cancer some 25 years ago, I completely understand the feelings of nostalgia that Janice R S Sinclare had when she chanced across her mother’s handwriting in an old document (Letters, October 24). 

I still have, and use, my mother’s handwritten recipe book from the 1960s and 1970s. It was written with her trusty Parker fountain pen in her favourite Quink blue/black ink. Seeing her handwriting, and recreating some of my favourite childhood meals, cooked just how my mother made them, always gives me immense pleasure.

Catherine Kidson
Bradfield, Berkshire

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