OUR 19-year-old son has just purchased his first fishing boat, having spent the last two years working for my husband, a semi-retired fisherman. It has been his dream to follow the long family tradition, to make a living and to be able to stay on the island of his birth. We are proud and supportive of that aspiration. How dispiriting to read Martha Vaughan’s piece describing the practices used by our son and other inshore fisherman from this area as "poorly managed" and a threat to the ecology of the area, our area ("Scottish monkfish, ray and skate added to ‘red list’ for consumers", The Herald, April 6).

Our son has been taught well by his father: target the species that you intend to catch; return undersized lobster and brown crab live from the creel back to the water; limit the number of creels you set, and return and notch all berried hen lobster. This notch means that they cannot be landed and helps to maintain healthy stock levels. After all, why would small-scale, inshore fishermen seek to destroy their own fishery?

The Marine Conservation Society is not a statutory body, it is a pressure group with a hefty bank balance which has enabled it to lobby and unleash this most recent assault on our culture and livelihood. The statutory body that we listen to is Marine Scotland, nationally and through the network of Fishery Offices. There is management and regulation of the industry and constant monitoring of stock levels and landings, not the Wild West Coast that your article suggests.

I am disappointed that, in order to give balance, you did not seek the view of the "wellies on the ground" – a Hebridean fisherman.

Christina Campbell, Plockropool, Isle of Harris.

ISRAEL IS THE AGGRESSOR

I WAS amazed to read Adam Tomkins' piece on Israel (“Fears stalks Israel as country faces uncertain future”, The Herald, April 6, and Letters, April 7). There was barely a single paragraph without whitewashed terminology.

Professor Tomkins couldn't bring himself to describe how the country was actually formed, simply stating it was "founded" in 1948 and portraying happy kibbutzes flourishing in Yaffa (Jaffa) soon after.

1948 for Palestinians is synonymous with "the Nakba", literally meaning "the Catastrophe". Palestinians use the key as a symbol for this time – they brought their keys with them, thinking that when the fighting was over they would return home. Many of their villages were entirely destroyed. Seven hundred thousand people fled.

It is no accident that when discussing the founding of Israel those who support the state sidestep the reality of its formation. In ignoring and erasing the people who existed in Palestine before 1948, criticism of the State of Israel can be framed as purely anti-Semitic – that opponents of Israel are denying the right of self-determination.

This ignores the real historical and contemporary context: Israel was formed by displacing people from the land they were on for generations. People are alive today who experienced that catastrophe, though many more died with no chance to return home. The same behaviour can be seen in East Jerusalem today, with the state evicting Palestinians and giving their land to Israeli citizens.

Israel has aggressively used expansionist behaviour via illegal "settlements" in the occupied territories. Prof Tomkins glosses over the occupation as being governed under the international law of belligerent occupation (Israel is the belligerent. In 2017 the European Council on Foreign Relations called it "unlawfully prolonged occupation").

All this, and Prof Tomkins' friends bemoan that "the Israel their grandparents had sought to build is being replaced". Incredible.

Elspeth Kanaan Brown, Milngavie.

DOUBTS ABOUT NET ZERO POLICIES

THE doubts of Alexander McKay (Letters, April 7) and others about the potential usefulness of the net zero policies are cautionary points well-taken for many reasons.

First, the monetary cost for UK decarbonisation was estimated by Prime Minister Theresa May as £3 trillion at least. We cannot afford such a huge sum. Inevitable consequences include enormous domestic, industrial and transport disruption, risking dangerous civil upsets.

Secondly, doubts are now being cast from work in Canada, Denmark and Israel as to the major mechanisms underlying our changing climate.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) may be the wrong target. For molecular and physical reasons, the Earth's climate is more likely to be under the basic control of the sun, water vapour, humidity, cosmic rays and cloud formation. CO2, at 0.04% of the atmosphere, represents less than 5% of total greenhouse gases. The balance varies with atmospheric humidity. Global warming has paused during the past two decades, as accurately monitored by Nasa satellites to abolish the impact of urban "heat islands". Meanwhile, CO2 concentrations have continued to rise, proof that CO2 is not the main driver of global warming.

The relative imminence of a grand solar minimum, based on the sun's reduced activity, would lead to falls in terrestrial temperatures, as has happened intermittently in centuries gone by.

Finally, since the UK's share of total global manmade CO2 is negligible at less than 1.5%, have we not reached virtual net zero already?

Will governments please spell out for us the explanation and justification for UK net zero?

Charles Wardrop, Perth.

PRIMARY CAUSES

ONE has to admire Chris Mason ("All quiet on west London front as job carousel turns", The Herald, April 4) for having overcome the grievous social disadvantage of having had not just one, but two, primary teachers as parents. Maybe he kept something that might have been acceptable in a redbrick a shameful secret when he was at Cambridge. I’m not sure if his Yorkshire accent is to be perceived as an advantage, rather than another social handicap, but I personally have not found it to dilute his BBC RP.

Ronald MacLean, Beauly.

UP TO PAR

I NOTE Jim Meikle’s observation that “for men at least, golf is rather like sex. One can really enjoy it without being any good at it” (Letters, April 7).

In my advanced years, still not very good at it, on a good day playing a round lasts upwards of four hours.

It’s a no-brainer. What’s not to like?

R Russell Smith, Largs.