Letters: The Met Police’s double standards jar with fundamental British values

SIR – The Metropolitan Police said the chants of “jihad” at the pro-Palestine march had “several meanings” (report, October 23). This was their excuse to stand by and do nothing. 

The same police force had previously ordered drivers of vans with screens showing the faces of Israeli children held hostage by Hamas to switch them off, and restrained Gideon Falter, the chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, “for his own safety”.  

This is obscene. It makes a mockery of our much-vaunted free speech.

Roslyn Pine
London N3

SIR – The image of the Metropolitan Police pondering the nuances of the meaning of the word jihad, even as it is being chanted by an extreme Islamist group on the streets of London, would be fit for the most brilliant satire were it not so alarming. 

I am proud to have signed the October Declaration in support of the right of British Jews to live in this country without fear. As Allison Pearson writes (Comment, October 23), it is time to take a stand. 

Laura Thompson
Richmond, Surrey

SIR – If 100,000 people protested in London demanding the destruction of the Gaza Strip and those who live there, would the Metropolitan Police have stood by and watched?

Alistair Mackay
Dunoon, Argyllshire

SIR – It was clear within days of Hamas’s terror strike that it would be impossible and undesirable for Israel to control Gaza and the West Bank in the future.
 
Israel has been an economic and innovation miracle, and Jewish people everywhere celebrate the 1917 Balfour Declaration and its conception of a home for the Jews. Yet a key part of that document said that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. Since 1948, this has not been adhered to, and the ever-widening gap between the creeds and living and working conditions of the two communities has become unbridgeable. Everyone asks what is to follow Israel’s purge of Gaza, but for now all diplomatic efforts are focused on humanitarian concerns. 

Palestinians will not respect any involvement by non-Muslim nations; if neighbouring Muslim countries, bar Iran, want a long-lasting and peaceful solution for the region, then they need to work out a way to regenerate the Palestine economies with a contribution from Israel and Western states – and then police the areas. 

The inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank have been friendless for decades, and unless something along the lines of the above is initiated in short order by, say, Saudi Arabia and the signatories of the Abraham Accords, with the help of the United Nations, then the misery will continue. 

The Earl of Balfour
London SW3
 

Tory election hopes

SIR – The Conservatives suffered crushing by-election defeats – with proper turnouts – in Eastbourne in 1990 and Ribble Valley in 1991 (Letters, October 23). Yet John Major went on to triumph in 1992 over a Labour Party that assumed it had already won. 

Victory is within reach if Rishi Sunak can articulate a positive vision rather than merely respond to events. Announcements such as ending recruitment of diversity roles in the NHS are welcome, but feel like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. There is still time to gain the initiative and give people something to vote for.

Marcus Walford
London SE1 

SIR – Keith Ives (Letters, October 23) is right: any tax cuts need to benefit those on lower pay. The simplest way to do this would be a dramatic increase in the personal allowance. This would not only put money back into people’s pockets, but also make work a more attractive option.

Patrick Loxdale
Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire

SIR – The Tories are finished, but not just because of Rishi Sunak’s incompetence and the economic and cultural mess we are in. 

Never forget what Boris Johnson’s Tories did to us for nearly three years: removing our civil liberties, sending police after us for drinking coffee or sitting on a park bench, while he and Whitehall ignored the rules because they knew they weren’t necessary.

John Booth
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Blaming referees

SIR – Lawrence Dallaglio asserts that England’s loss in the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup was down to the referee (Sport, October 22). 

I am a referee and in that position am often criticised. At the end of every game, without exception, the players have had many more chances than the referee to influence the outcome by their skill and judgment. 

In the event that I am castigated by both teams after the game, I’ll consider the possibility that I was the worst participant on the pitch. Needless to say this has not happened yet.

Jonathan Fleet
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
 

Punch and Judy pupil

SIR – I took my grandchildren to see the Punch and Judy show on Swanage beach this summer (Leading Article, October 21). 

I have seen many such shows over the years at Swanage, and the young puppeteer, Joe Burns, is one of the best. His puppet theatre is spectacular to view; his puppets are works of art. He keeps a good level of humour and predictable shock. Mr Punch brazenly comes out on top, as always.

There was an enthusiastic lad there, very keen to jump on the bandwagon, but he was only 11. Let’s hope one or two more enthusiasts come forward to be Mr Burns’s apprentice, as it’s a tradition that must not be lost.

Sue Quiney
Reigate, Surrey
 

Bigger fowl to fry

SIR – My husband and I have also enjoyed watching a whole turkey being deep-fried in peanut oil (Letters, October 21), inside a modified oil drum. 

From memory the bird weighed 14lbs and cooked in 40 minutes. We have never eaten such a deliciously tender turkey, and so full of flavour.

Caroline Osborne
Elmswell, Suffolk
 

Rural phone signal

SIR – You report (October 23) that mobile network operators cannot meet a government deadline to improve the signal in rural areas.

Fifty years after the first call from a mobile phone was made in New York, my small Dorset village has no network signal at all. On a good day I can walk to the top of a nearby field where I might be lucky to pick up three bars of 3G. We are not some remote community in the Highlands of Scotland; we are just four miles from a small market town where the signal is barely any better.

The fault lies with those who drew up the terms under which licences are issued to mobile phone companies. Without a condition to share masts, or to achieve a minimum level of service across the whole country, operators naturally cherry-picked large towns and cities and ignored country areas.

A good mobile phone signal is not a luxury in sparsely populated areas; it can be a matter of life and death. This is certainly not going to endear rural voters to this Government, which, again, seems to see us as not worth bothering about.

Nick Serpell
Drimpton, Dorset
 

Pen for your thoughts

SIR – I still use my father’s Parker 51 (Letters, October 23), which he gave me when I went off to boarding school in 1956.

At that point I started writing a daily diary with it, and have done ever since. For years I have used turquoise ink, of which I have three bottles – just in case they decide to discontinue it.

Patricia Essex
Hedge End, Hampshire 

SIR – When I sat my professional exams in 1971, I needed a pen that would hold a lot of ink, as each paper lasted three hours. The only one that seemed to fit the bill was the Mont Blanc Meisterstück Diplomat at £9 19s 11d.

I still use it occasionally and it writes perfectly (though sadly I don’t). Admittedly, it had a new nib about five years ago and a new barrel five years before that – and they cost more than the pen.

Huw Wynne-Griffith
London W8

SIR – Searching through some papers recently, I came across a long out-of-date insurance document. I was about to put it in the recycle bin when I saw a note my mother had made in the margin. Seeing her familiar handwriting, she was, just for a moment, right there, sitting next to me.

Janice R S Sinclare
London N12
 

There for the opening night of The Mousetrap

SIR – I was very interested to read the obituary (October 19) of David Turner and his connection to Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.

I was lucky enough to be at the play’s opening night in Nottingham in October 1952. A group of us from Nottingham General Hospital had booked tickets to celebrate receiving our nursing badges for completing four years as state registered nurses.

Over 70 years later, I still remember the production vividly. Agatha Christie appeared on stage at the end of the performance with the cast, who were all well-known actors. My friends and I thought the production was wonderful. We could afford to buy just one programme between us and in retrospect I wish I’d kept my ticket as a memento. 

Little did we know then that it would become the world’s longest-running play.

Doreen Burton
Edinburgh
 

Sharing the back of a taxi with Bobby Charlton

SIR – In 1993, while taking a taxi in downtown Buenos Aires with Bobby Charlton, his wife and me in the rear, my husband, who was sitting in the front seat, turned to the Argentine driver and asked him who the world’s greatest ever footballer was. The immediate response was “Bobby Charlton” (Letters, October 23). 

My husband then informed him of the identity of his passenger. The driver turned round to meet his hero, leaving my husband to grab the wheel to steer us to safety.

Bobby Charlton had travelled to Buenos Aires as part of the Manchester 2000 Olympic bid. While he was there my husband persuaded the British ambassador to approach President Carlos Menem and challenge him to a match. Bobby Charlton played as captain against a team of former Argentine internationals, with the president as captain. A great coup for recently restored Anglo-Argentine diplomatic relations.

Kate Walters
Worksop, Nottinghamshire

SIR – Some years ago, before Saddam Hussein’s invasion, I was working in Kuwait. One day my wife and I and a colleague went out to view the Iraqi border as innocent sightseers. We were unexpectedly arrested at gunpoint by two zealous border guards. I had memorised a phrase in Arabic to explain that we were doctors from England.

After a brief pause the guard lowered his rifle and we our hands. “You know Bobby Charlton?” he asked. Once we confirmed that we did, he gave us a banana and waved us away.

I have followed Manchester United ever since.

Rob Caird
Greywell, Hampshire
 

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