Whatever the policy differences between the government and the opposition, both are committed to economic growth (“It’s not the economy, stupid: wellbeing is the real vote-winner”). What neither has addressed is how this is consistent with the need for policies that adequately address the climate crisis. Claims that green growth or technological innovation will resolve the problem have been shown to be spurious, or will take too long to stop us exceeding sustainable temperature levels.
My generation in the global north has had all the pluses life can offer – free education, full employment, affordable housing, good health, good pensions and no wars. My concern is that we will be considered to have been not just the luckiest but also the most short-sighted and selfish generation in history. If growth is not the answer, we have to consider how we define the role of economics in creating a sustainable future and this has to include a central role for the redistribution of wealth. As Richard Layard shows in his article, a more equal society is also a happier one.
Geoffrey Payne
London W5
Fears for my child
Thank you for the article by Hannah Barnes and the concerns over the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (“Why disturbing leaks from a US gender group ring alarm bells in the NHS”). As a parent of a teenager who identifies as transgender, I am very concerned that she receives proper care from the NHS. I am horrified that the treatment has so many side-effects and is based on flimsy evidence.
Name and address supplied
Who ate all the pies?
On Saturday, I went to watch the team I used to play for, Accrington Stanley, who were at home to Bradford. It was a large and raucous crowd tightly squeezed into Stanley’s small ground, where the capacity is only 5,450. Later, I read the League Two results in the Observer and was greatly amused and mildly intrigued that you gave the attendance as 40,099 [the correct figure was 4,099]. I think that might be the number of pies sold this season!
Phil Eccles
Witherslack, Cumbria
Israel’s terrible trap
Natasha Walter’s piece is timely (“London a no-go zone for Jews? Such harmful rhetoric doesn’t reflect my experience”). As a British Jew, born here in 1939, I too am appalled at the events in Gaza. I have spent waking hours at night thinking of the terror of Palestinians, particularly women and children, at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces. We all know the situation is complicated and that the Hamas attacks on 7 October were unforgivable. But Palestinians have been suppressed and their land occupied and the events in the West Bank, with Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians, is unforgivable too.
I am old enough to remember the idealism and goodwill that prevailed when Israel was founded in 1948. David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir were titans compared with Benjamin Netanyahu. His actions have led Israel into a terrible trap and it will take years for the country to regain international respect, if it ever does.
We Jews must speak out and show that we believe there is another way and that hatred and killing never achieve a just outcome for those involved.
Marian Stevenson
Arundel, West Sussex
Natasha Walter begins her opinion piece by explaining how fearful and vulnerable she feels, holding her ceasefire sign on the way to a pro-Palestinian “march”. She quotes a handful of people, including Robin Simcox, the government commissioner countering extremism, who are calling London unsafe for Jews on Saturdays. Her mistake is that she truly believes that they are talking to her. Well, they are not. London is perfectly safe for ceasefire Jews who join the masses in calling for the annihilation of Israel. These ceasefire Jews are embraced and showcased by the rioters as the true voice of the Jewish people.
But I want to be very clear, Ms Walter does not speak for me, nor does she speak for the vast majority of Jews in the world. If you want to truly understand how Jews feel, ask a Jew who never starts a sentence with “as a Jew”.
Guy Abramovitz
London
What price our health?
Further to Angela Giuffrida’s article on the steel factory in Taranto, Italy, and the linked cases of cancer, Italy is not the only country where the government fails to protect citizens (“ ‘This factory kills everything’: the red dust of death in Italy’s under-developed south”). The case of the River Wye, where poultry farms are draining excrement into the river system, comes to mind; the Environment Agency failed to take appropriate action. Similarly, the Environmental Protection Agency in Ireland licensed a cement factory to burn toxic waste in its cement kiln in Mungret, Co Limerick. The fumes produced from this process will undoubtedly be rich in PM2.5 (tiny particles that cause lung cancer) and dioxins (carcinogenic compounds). People are left unprotected and legal costs to take action against polluters are so high that they can’t afford them. Who is going to save us from “our protectors”?
Dr Ioannis Zabetakis
Killaloe, co Clare, Ireland
Keep your views to yourself
Your editorial on why the science and innovation minister, Michelle Donelan, deserves to lose her job misses an important point (“The Observer view: Michelle Donelan deserves to lose her job”). This is not only about freedom of expression but about what is appropriate professional conduct.
As an NHS clinician at consultant level for the last 30 years, a grant holder of UK Research and Innovation medical research grants and peer reviewer for competitive grant applications and research publications, I and others have kept our views and beliefs to ourselves to ensure that the “working space” is perceived as neutral, protected, fair and impartial for all.
With the advent of social media, there is an urgent need to consider how we protect this space. If we broadcast such views, they could undermine the perceived impartiality which is basic to all research ethics and professional codes of conduct and confidence in the fairness of grant fund allocation and healthcare delivery.
Name and address supplied
Go for it, Gove
Hooray for Michael Gove (“Revealed: legal fears over new Gove definition of ‘extremism’”). His plan to ban attempts to “overturn, exploit or undermine the UK’s system of liberal democracy to confer advantages or disadvantages on specific groups” is just what this country needs. I never thought I would see the day when a senior Conservative minister would be advocating the abolition of parliamentary lobbying, the honours system and public schools!
John French
Brockweir, Chepstow
