Letters: How truth can become the first casualty of war faster than ever before

SIR – Allister Heath (Comment, October 19) discusses “anti-Israel bias” in the West.

Many of us have long believed that our hard-won values are shared by the majority in this country. I still believe that to be true, but we have allowed ourselves to forget that honesty, logic, fact and reason require us daily to defend them. Instead, we have allowed social media to dominate with its spread of disinformation and partisan views. We have to stand up against this and keep making the case for truth.

Linda Hughes
Newton Abbot, Devon

SIR – The Prime Minister is to be congratulated on his strong, principled and balanced stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict. It is greatly appreciated by all reasonable people who still retain the ability to observe world events with objectivity.

Sadly this is not shown by some of our media. This has been vividly illustrated by the week’s stand-out tragedy when a rocket hit a hospital car park in Gaza. It was gleefully reported by some media, including Sky News, as being the responsibility of the Israel Defense Forces. Within 24 hours it became clear that the high probability was that the offending rocket was faulty and had been fired from a terrorist source within Gaza. Crucially, the correction of the original misreporting was reluctant and nuanced – nowhere near strong enough to balance the original reports.

The implications of the above are horrendous. Passions, already white-hot, become even more inflamed and a new form of blood libel is established. In other words, a destructive fiction morphs in the eyes of many into a fact they are only too willing to believe.

I know how concerned Rishi Sunak is to avoid conflict between Britain’s communities. In the interests of justice and national unity, I urge him to speak out against this irresponsible behaviour by some in our media.

David Bernstein
Former chair, Football Association
London N33

SIR – The BBC has refused to refer to Hamas as a terrorist organisation, and now our glorious actors and actresses have made an ill-judged intervention (“Actors fail to condemn Hamas in open letter”, report, October 19).

Mobs crowd the streets in apparent support of the genocide committed against Jewish people. Such actions must be policed with determination. They stand in stark contrast to the quiet dignity of Jewish street vigils. When protest turns into incitement, those of us who believe in democracy and the rule of law must speak up for decency.

Peter Snow
Cambridge 

SIR – I have spent the years since the EU referendum complaining about the Conservatives, but have never felt prouder of the party than I do now, for Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly’s actions in the Middle East.

Jackie Perkins
Whitstable, Kent

The road to lockdown

SIR – Two things appear to have informed the initial response to the emerging Covid pandemic, leading 
to the first lockdown (Comment, October 18).

First, of the 32 Cabinet members in early 2020, only three had science degrees, and none were final decision-makers. Science advances by observation, hypotheses on how to deal with a problem, and challenging the hypotheses. For the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), the observation was that Covid-19 was causing deaths, especially in older and medically-compromised people – and very different hypotheses emerged.

Secondly, the Government likened the situation to the Second World War, when all public communications were made through the Ministry of Information. Nowadays, there are two forms of public communication – the formal media and social media – over which the Government has little control. Most media rapidly focused on worst-case scenarios and some spread misinformation, leading to a fear campaign.

It seems that these two factors – the prime decision-makers’ lack of understanding of the scientific process and media scaremongering – led to the stringent lockdown conditions imposed by the Government. 

I hope that two changes emerge from this: better use of the scientific process by the Government, and greater controls on the veracity of information put out by the media.

Roger Hull
Child Okeford, Dorset
 

Time, gentlemen

SIR – Many years ago I spent a day in the dining room of the House of Commons. I was astonished that I, as a taxpayer, contributed to the cost of the meals, but I was horrified that we subsidised all the alcohol (“Parliamentarians ‘too drunk to remember bad behaviour’”, report, October 18). Time to stop.

Margaret O’Connell
Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

Housing and births

SIR – South Korea is to be applauded for its pro-family and pro-housing attitudes (report, October 12). We should follow suit. Birth rates in the UK have decreased two-fold since the 1940s, while house prices have increased beyond affordability.

Naysayers may complain that easing mortgage costs will inflate house prices even further. However, the only realistic way to lower house prices would be to build millions more homes, and doing so would take decades, which we do not have. 
Already 40 per cent of women at the average age to have a first baby are forced to rent. In 1996 it was less than 15 per cent. The Government needs to act now to help families.

Bartek Staniszewski
Senior Researcher, Bright Blue
London EC4

 

Sobbing solo

SIR – All the guitar solos mentioned by your correspondents are excellent (Letters, October 18), but I find it astonishing that no one has yet highlighted David Gilmour’s solo at the end of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. I cry every time I listen to it.

Tom Dubec
Tunbridge Wells, Kent

SIR – The prize for the worst guitar solo in history must go to Duane Allman’s efforts on Layla Part 2 by Derek and the Dominos. Truly embarrassing.

Cliff Brooker
Hastings, East Sussex

Marx’s reading room

SIR – The resignation in August of Hartwig Fischer as director of the British Museum brought to an end an uneven period for this unique institution.

Besides the theft of more than 1,500 items from the collection, the real scandal has been the exclusion of the public from the domed reading room, one of the most impressive and historic spaces in London. It has been closed to the public for a number of years, which is understandable; but although short tours are now available, this misses the point of an open public institution. Visitors should be able to view it from a secure enclosure.

I pleaded with the director five years ago to construct a glazed enclosure at the entrance, so visitors could have a view without actually entering the place where the greatest minds of the 19th century – Marx and Lenin among them – read, studied and thought. It is high time the trustees and the government minister responsible tackled something that could be done simply and at no great cost. They owe it to both visitors and British taxpayers.

Sandor P Vaci
London SW1

Seamless rail service

SIR – At a time when there is much criticism of Britain’s railways, I should like to put on record the excellent service I received recently on a journey from Worcester to Stevenage via Birmingham and Peterborough.  

As I am in my 90th year and my mobility is somewhat restricted, when I booked my ticket I arranged personal assistance at all four stations on my route. An assistant, who was waiting for me when I changed trains, carried my luggage and saw me to my new seat. They then phoned ahead to inform colleagues where I was sitting, and I was again met and addressed by name. At the final station the assistant accompanied me to the exit, where my daughter was waiting for me.

Although three rail companies were involved, communication was seamless and I would certainly recommend the service to elderly, infirm or disabled passengers.

Vivien Greenow
Worcester

Caine in the kitchen

SIR – Michael Caine advised (I believe on Desert Island Discs) that his secret to the best roast potatoes (Letters, October 19) was to put them in the oven in cold, not heated, oil. He’s right.

Jill Ainsworth
Claygate, Kent

Outmanoeuvred by a determined woodpecker

SIR – We have a green woodpecker (report, October 16) that has so far drilled 13 holes (with a diameter of about 75mm) into three sides of our wooden-clad church bell tower. This had new stained wood panels screwed on the inside to 
stop its entry (or the entry of other birds or wildlife). It has obviously annoyed the bird, which is starting to drill through these as well. 

Has anyone any ideas as to how to stop this bird making further attacks on our bell tower?

Nick Morgan
Aston Sandford, Buckinghamshire

Driven to despair by a lawyer’s use of English

SIR – I received a letter from a solicitor to say that she had – wait for it – “diarised” our appointment (Letters, October 19). I despair.

Martin Stevenson
Marlborough, Wiltshire

SIR – When did the response to the question “How are you?” become “I’m good”? And when did “my mistake” become “my bad”?

George Atkinson-Clark
Preston Deanery, Northamptonshire 

SIR – With regard to an “unexploded bomb”, what other kind is there?

Perry Bebbington
Kimberley, Nottinghamshire

SIR – I am currently reading The King’s English by Kingsley Amis – a wonderful account of the horrors that can be inflicted on the English language. 

I hope this letter is grammatically correct.

Mark Young
Barcombe Mills, East Sussex 

SIR – What is the difference between a watershed and a watershed moment?

Lynne Ridler-Wall
Overton, Hampshire

SIR – I am always intrigued by the term “pan-fried” on a menu. How else would you fry something?

Sam Kelly
Oldham, Lancashire

SIR – I find the instruction on road signs to “use both lanes” difficult to follow.

Jonathan Daniel
Braunton, Devon

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