Letters: Anti-Semitism for all to see on the streets of the British capital

SIR – Some 1,400 Israelis have been savagely murdered by Hamas, and more than 200 hostages have been taken, leaving their families bereft.

Yet among the 100,000 people who demonstrated in London over the weekend, many appeared to be on the side of the hostage-takers (report, October 22). 

Has the world gone completely mad?

Jeremy Jacobs
Stanmore, Middlesex

SIR – I am a Jew, born and raised in the United Kingdom. 

My whole life – both working and social – has been spent predominantly with non-Jews. I have never, to my knowledge, faced anti-Semitism. Yet for the very first time, I fear for my future, as well as that of my children and grandchildren, in this country.

Peter Brady
Radlett, Hertfordshire

SIR – It seems we now live in a country where you cannot pray silently outside an abortion clinic (report, telegraph.co.uk, October 17) but you can drive around a Jewish neighbourhood making threats and spreading hate against a minority, knowing that no action will be taken against you.

What happened? This country has not just lost its moral compass; it has embraced hatred.

Chris Johnson
Bournemouth, Dorset

SIR – Douglas Murray (Comment, October 21) says, in regard to the aftermath of Hamas’s attack, that “Israel has hardly responded at all so far”.

What about the Israeli air strikes on Gaza, or the displacement of Palestinians, or Israel’s withholding of water, power and aid?

John Tavner
Colchester, Essex

SIR – There is no equivalence between the victims of a pogrom and the citizens of a country at war. While the ordinary people of Gaza are suffering as a consequence of the actions of their “leaders” (who have no qualms about using them as human shields) the citizens of Israel, a sovereign country, were targeted – kidnapped, tortured, murdered and raped – in their own homes, simply for being Jewish, Israeli or living in Israel.

Meanwhile, the statement from Mark Bullingham, chief executive of the Football Association, explaining why Wembley arch was not lit up in the colours of the Israeli flag (“We all felt ... we should show compassion for all innocent victims”), was just a continuation of the apologist agenda of this organisation.

Rebecca Mendoza
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Anglesey

SIR – The simple truth is that Israel has never, ever called for the complete destruction of a religious group.
Michael West
Poole, Dorset

Tory prospects

SIR – Lord Frost (Comment, October 21) is correct that the Conservatives need to give their supporters some “red meat”. 

I have been a Tory voter all my life, and the party has been ignoring people like me for far too long. I keep asking myself which party I’d vote for if there were a general election tomorrow, and I can’t answer my own question. 

I do know that I could not give my vote to Labour or the Liberal Democrats, so my options would be to vote for Reform UK or abstain, something I’ve never done before. 

I have serious doubts about whether the current bunch of MPs can turn the party around. Too many are Lib Dems in disguise. I’m an optimist, however, so will not give up hope just yet.

Ann Wright
Cambridge

SIR – At the last general election, Conservative-minded voters had both something to vote for – Brexit – and something to vote against: Jeremy Corbyn’s extremism.

The current situation is entirely different. The Conservatives are offering us nothing to vote for and the Labour Party is no longer feared.

Rishi Sunak’s vision – scrap HS2 to Manchester, ban smoking and change school exams – simply doesn’t cut the mustard; and frankly, if voters want a Government of tax and spend, they might as well support the traditional exponents of this approach.

Christopher Gill
Bridgnorth, Shropshire

SIR – I was astonished to read that the Conservatives are considering raising the tax threshold for higher-rate payers (report, October 21).

I can think of no better way to guarantee that the party loses the next general election. It would cause uproar among the very people whose votes the Tories need to attract. 

If there is scope for tax changes, they should be to the lowest band. Working people will then see that their real champions are the Tories.

Keith Ives
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

SIR – Peter Dann (Letters, October 21) makes the ridiculous assertion that the recent by-election results were a backlash against Liz Truss’s tenure as prime minister. 

It is Rishi Sunak who is in power, not Ms Truss. Mr Sunak was not elected by the Conservative membership and that is why Conservative voters are not voting. Ms Truss was never given a chance to prove herself.

Virginia Freeman
Hastings, East Sussex

Pride and pleonasm 

SIR – The term “proud sponsors” always amuses me (Letters, October 21). 

Are there any ashamed ones?

Keith Strickland
Great Hinton, Wiltshire

SIR – Has anybody received a free gift lately?

Betty Murphy
Upton, Wirral

SIR – Why do we now reach out, share and pass when we mean contact, tell and die?

Rosemary Morton Jack
Oddington, Oxfordshire 

SIR – I would like to know when skills became a skill set.

Ian Burns
Storrington, West Sussex

SIR – Why are vehicles always parked up these days, rather than simply parked?

David Ray
Norwich

Harm of lockdown

SIR – I am pleased to see that Professor Karol Sikora (Comment, October 21) is challenging the Sage members who continue to insist that it was a good idea to lock down the entire British economy and dedicate hospitals to the treatment of Covid. 

That policy has caused untold suffering in the long run, which is apparent to anybody who does not have a vested interest.

Chris Davies
Woking, Surrey

SIR – Roger Hull (Letters, October 20), discussing the development of Covid policy, makes two valid points with regard to the scientific method.

Unfortunately, he misses the third element of this method: a rigorously designed experiment, with clear objectives and indicators of success (or failure) to support the hypothesis.

My understanding is that the Government carried out such an experiment and it demonstrated that Britain’s pandemic preparedness was inadequate. When Covid arrived, it was essentially flying blind.

Barry Sheldon
Cholsey, Oxfordshire

Weight in rugby

SIR – I sat down on Saturday night hoping to watch a good game of rugby (“Agony for England as Springboks strike with late rally”, Sport, October 22). What I witnessed was a brawl – admittedly quite accomplished – in which one team overcame the other, not with superior skills, but weight. 

I suggest that consideration be given to a policy that limits a team’s total weight in first-class rugby.

Ben Griffin
Ottery St Mary, Devon

SIR – Owen Farrell, the England captain, deserves the praise of the nation for getting us to within a whisker of the Rugby World Cup final. Roll on the Six Nations.

Donald King
Kennerleigh, Devon

A note from Larkin

SIR – Philip Larkin’s view of Hull was less enthusiastic than C J Fletcher suggests (Letters, October 21) but he appreciated the sturdiness of its people: “A cut-price crowd, urban yet simple.” He came to my church there once and dropped me a note I treasure: “I bow my head at what you do and raise it again at the manner in which you do it.”

Francis Bown
London E3

Bobby Charlton, a humble giant of football

SIR – The very sad news of the death of the great Sir Bobby Charlton was particularly poignant for people such as myself who were football-mad kids in the mid-1960s. 

During the 1966 World Cup, he stood shoulder to shoulder with the finest of that generation, including Franz Beckenbauer, Eusébio and Pelé. Yet throughout a stellar global footballing career, he was always humble. Rest in peace.

Kim Potter
Lambourn, Berkshire

SIR – In the late 1970s, in a restaurant in Dresden (at that time part of communist East Germany), my wife and I got into conversation with two elderly Germans. The two British names they knew were Winston Churchill and Bobby Charlton. That says it all about this great man. 

I did have the good fortune to meet him 20 years later, and he proved to be just as I imagined.

Chris Lewis
Widnes, Cheshire

SIR – During late summer in 1966 I was in Morocco, having a kickabout with some local lads on a beach. The only name they shouted was “Bobby Charlton” – not Bobby Moore, the England captain, or hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst.

Tony Dibble
Orihuela Costa, Alicante, Spain

SIR – Sir Bobby was a hero to many of my male contemporaries in the 1960s and 1970s. 

How could I forget the boyfriend who paid me what, at the time, he considered to be the greatest of compliments: “You’ve got knees like Bobby Charlton”?

Angela Lawrence
Woodbridge, Suffolk

When handwriting wasn’t a rarefied art

SIR – Forty years ago I was a teacher in a boarding prep school. There were no mobiles and the telephone was only permitted in an emergency. First period on a Monday morning was always letter-writing (Letters, October 21). Not necessarily home – it might have been to an aunt, uncle or grandparent. In any case, I like to think that many of those letters have been treasured.

Thomas Gough 
Ballindalloch, Banffshire

SIR – I am still using my trusty Parker 61, which I bought in 1972 when I was at Durham University. My bottle of Quink ink, however, seems to last for years rather than months these days.

Tim Oldfield
Wye, Kent

SIR – Email is an effective means of communication. My handwriting isn’t. 

David Nunn FRCS
West Malling, Kent

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