Israel must not be allowed to launch a new war

The West (America) must inform Israel to either pull back to the 1967 border to allow for a new Palestinian state, or give all the inhabitants of the entire land (“between the sea and the river”) of Greater Israel full citizenship. It doesn’t even end there, as some Zionists (with some in the present government) think “the Land of Israel” also comprises both Jordan and/or Lebanon.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

Read more: SNP must stop wasting our money on unattainable indy

A plot to kill off the NHS

THE significant, yet seemingly overlooked, factor in your front-page exposé on 3.5million shifts advertised by the Scottish NHS to stand in for non-existent permanent staff ("Blast at 'eye-watering rise' in Scots NHS agency shifts", The Herald, January 3) is that in the year in question almost half of these shifts were not filled. One assumes that the work due to be performed on this horrendous number of occasions was either cancelled or it took place with sub-optimal staffing levels. The problem is not that the NHS has to hire temporary staff but that obviously it doesn’t have sufficient full-time permanent staff to cover absence through sickness leave or further education.

My personal experience both as a former NHS employee and currently as a patient is that the service is understaffed, underfunded and on the point of collapse. I also feel this is not happening by chance but is a deliberate policy driven by and facilitated by Westminster with the ultimate aim of removing the NHS altogether and its replacement by the private sector. There is no practical reason why the United Kingdom cannot train enough staff or allocate adequate funding to have the best free health service in the world, someone has decided that will not happen. I'll give you a clue: it's not the SNP.

David J Crawford, Glasgow.

Will EV owners have the last laugh? (Image: PA)

EV drivers feel the buzz

IF I may borrow Clark Cross’s opening salvo (Letters, January 3), we really all must make a New Year resolution to be nicer to the owners of petrol and diesel cars. They have after all been subjected to relentless anti-electric propaganda from the fossil fuel industries.

I drive an electric car which I bought second-hand, with 11,000 miles on the clock, at a very reasonable price. It affords me a very smooth and remarkably silent ride. I drive about 1,000 miles per month, at a cost of about £80. The range on a full charge is about 250 miles in high summer, and about 200 miles in the depths of winter. Snow and ice have presented no problems to the car. I have never had any difficulty locating a charging point, and I have never experienced so-called “range anxiety”. The lithium batteries have yet to go on fire. My insurance premium is less than that quoted by Mr Cross, by a factor of 24.

The guys at my local gym tease me about my car. “You live 10 miles away? You’ll have to charge up on the way home.” I don’t mind; it makes me laugh. I don’t think any of them have ever driven an electric car. What I find more insidious is Mr Cross’s notion that it doesn’t matter what we do, because the rest of the world is going to hell in a hand-cart (powered by an internal combustion engine). Many, perhaps most, novel enterprises worth pursuing were initiated by individuals who were ridiculed for their wackiness. They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round.

Dr Hamish Maclaren, Stirling.

Dook needs a new look

IT'S all a bit of fun and proceeds go to charity, but continuing to refer to the annual swim in the Forth as a "Loony Dook" ("Looney Dookers leap into 2024", The Herald, January 2) must stop.

Everyone knows what is meant by Loony. It means you have to be mad to do it.

It seems mental health charities and advocacy groups have been silent on this matter.

Mental ill health is no fun. Stop minimising it.

Gerald Hope, Glasgow.

Read more: Scottish independence: 64p per person for preparations is a bargain

Why didn't they cotton on?

I READ John F Crawford's letter on "real" nappies (January 2) and it brought back a very different image to what was suggested. He stated that part of the problem was the old laborious system of steeping, scrubbing and laundering. As a young mother in the mid-1980s keen to be environmentally friendly, I used an Australian very colourful brand of ready-formed cotton nappies, Velcro tabs, no safety pins needed. They were hung on the pulley to dry after washing and were still going strong when number three son came along.

Young people today do seem very environmentally conscious so I’m left wondering why these never became standard practice?

I’m assuming the initial outlay was prohibitive to many. An ideal initiative for a forward-thinking government and an opportunity missed for sure.

Catherine Griffin, Glasgow.

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Spare us from this TV tosh

BBC drama production reached the gold standard with Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy (1979, dir. John Irvin); Smiley’s People (1982, dir. Simon Langton); Edge of Darkness (1985, dir. Martin Campbell); The Singing Detective (1986, dir. Jon Amiel); A Perfect Spy (1987, dir. Peter Smith); and throughout the 1970s the incomparable adaptations of ghost stories by MR James and Charles Dickens directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark.

All of these outstanding dramas were distinguished by superb acting, skilful camerawork and memorable music. By contrast, today’s television licence-payers are woefully disappointed on a regular basis by one anodyne, tongue-in-cheek, unintelligible, virtue-signalling production, or remake, after another.

Duncan McAra, Bishopbriggs.