Unconditional support of Israel will lead us all to disaster

There will be no condemnation of this from Keir Starmer, David Lammy, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris or Antony Blinken. Just as no western leaders condemned the IDF killing 13-year-old schoolgirl Iman Al Hams in Gaza in 2005, by the testimony of the soldiers involved knowing she couldn’t be a suicide bomber as they had already hit her schoolbag, which she then dropped, when they wounded her 100 metres away from them, before killing her as she crawled further away. Nor an IDF sniper killing a 16-year-old boy outside a hospital in Jenin in July 2023, CCTV footage proving he wasn’t armed or killed in fighting. Nor when IDF tank crews killed six-year-old Hind Rajab and her uncle’s family in his car in Gaza in January this year. Then, later, the ambulance crew her cousin had phoned before they killed her. Nor the 12-year-old boy Israeli border guards killed in East Jerusalem in March, CCTV again proving they lied about the circumstances.

When Israeli reporter Jonathan Pollack witnessed an IDF soldier kill an American-Turkish dual national protester in the West Bank recently this was, as usual, talked of as if it was an isolated incident. And his testimony showed the IDF lying about the circumstances again.

Supporting Israeli governments unconditionally is not only morally wrong, but, like the Iraq war, will lead to disaster with Islamism boosted.

Duncan McFarlane, Carluke.

Read more letters

• I thought Starmer would be a safe pair of hands. I was wrong
• How can we possibly negotiate with this Israeli regime?

Why the silence on atrocities?

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with Isobel Lindsay and Leah Gunn Barrett (Letters, October 3) re the UK Government's stubborn and misguided loyalty to the current extreme right-wing regime in Israel.

Keir Starmer's statement after Iran's attack on Israel said more than 200 missiles targeted civilians. That was wrong. BBC correspondents on the scene reported the targets were Israeli air bases and the headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli spy agency which planted explosives in pagers that killed dozens of Lebanese and maimed thousands last month.

And of course Israel assassinated the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in Iran and Lebanon. Ismail Haniyeh, and possibly Hassan Nasrallah, were negotiating ceasefires for Gaza.

Shouldn't we be worried that our Prime Minister, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, appears not too concerned with facts or international law?

No Israelis were killed in Iran's attacks. But Israel is continuing to bombard schools, even an orphanage in Gaza, killing at least 51 people, and 32 more in Khan Younis.

No mention of these atrocities from Keir Starmer or his puppet in Scotland Anas Sarwar, who we have to accept now doesn't speak out against his boss.

Andy Stenton, Glasgow.

Starmer: the damage is done

SO Sir Keir Starmer, after being at the end of a storm of adverse media publicity in recent times over donations, has resolved to repay some of the gifts and hospitality received since being Prime Minister ("Starmer repays £6,000 for gifts including Taylor Swift tickets", The Herald, October 3). His reputation has been damaged by the receipt by him of so many donations during his time in Parliament. If he believes that the damage done has now been repaired by these repayments, then I believe that he is mistaken. The nature of his relationship with Lord Waheed Alli remains unclear, as does the reason for His Lordship being granted a pass to enter 10 Downing Street.

Sir Keir may well now be regretting that he was so receptive to donations. He is, however, not out of the woods yet on these matters in the world of public opinion. It could be said, in other words, that the jury is still out. Steven Camley in his excellent cartoon (October 3) did not miss his target.

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

• IT is encouraging to read that Keir Starmer is repaying around £6,000, albeit for only a few out of the many freebies he and his wife have received which are reported as totalling around £107,000. As he keeps going on about transparency, has he said whether he intends this to be the beginning or the end of his repayments?

Also encouraging is the news that Sir Keir has “commissioned a new set of principles on gifts and hospitality to be published as part of the updated ministerial code". To avoid fudging and clean up present practice, this code should include provisions making it a resignation matter if any recipient is found to have wrongly identified a freebie thus disguising its true nature. One such example would be by identifying a personal gift as “office costs" or similar which seems to have been common practice currently as witnessed by what we have learned from this Starmer/Alli freebie saga. Would that this updated code could be made retrospective.

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.

Changing face of Labour

WE have watched PM Starmer parade around all dolled-up in his thousands of pounds of freebie clothing. But he is wearing other garments: the soft liberal Toryism of his new Labour. We have seen it best expressed in the pensioner cuts to winter fuel payments made to appease the money markets. But there's more.

The several indiscreet disclosures he has made (over £100,000, minus £6,000) have become a kind of anthem of and for the new Labour MP seeking the baubles of the rich and the lifestyle of the wealthy. Is that the change culture of which Keir Starmer spoke?

His new Labour is turning into the party of the neo-liberal British bourgeoisie. And greed is its credo.

And not a blue tent to be seen.

Thom Cross, Carluke.

Steven Camley's comment on the Keir Starmer donations row (Image: Newsquest)

Are politicians taxed fairly?

I NOTE another thought-provoking piece from Neil Mackay ("SNP, Labour, Tories... politicians know nothing about our lives", The Herald, October 3).

When I was in work I travelled throughout the UK and had for many years a company car. The rules were that I recorded mileage for business use and paid a mileage charge for private journeys. When I had to travel by air, the rule became, use Easyjet or Ryanair and get the cheapest fair available. A colleague once got a Ryanair flight for £0.01: a penny.

Then income tax had to be paid on company cars as they became a "benefit in kind". The answer was that company cars were withdrawn and a pay increase was given, taxable of course, to enable the purchase of our own cars. This also moved the cost of servicing and maintenance onto the car owner. A mileage rate for business use was given, but not for commuting, which was deemed as a private journey even if a visit to a client was made en route to the office. Incidentally, keeping my own car in a well -maintained condition meant that it was kept for longer with mileages exceeding 140,000 before replacing with a newer used car instead of the company version being replaced at around 100,000 miles maximum with a brand new model.

I give this example to ask if our politicians pay income tax on all and every benefit in kind?

If they do, then perhaps a spokesperson can refute Mr Mackay's statements. If they don't then something is truly rotten in UK politics.

The question is, what do we, or can we, the public, do about it? I think that the answer is "not very much, if anything, even at the ballot box".

Ian Gray, Croftamie.

• SURELY the answer to the expenses of MPs and MSPs in the current constrained times is to have them means-tested?

Drew Bryceland, Greenock.

Care service a futile gesture

THE Scottish National Care Service will, if it ever happens, foist yet another set of meaningless charters and empty rhetoric on to those who rely on care and those who provide care. It will create yet more obfuscation to the provision of fit-for-purpose services under another pile of glossy leaflets and jargon. At a cost of £28 million so far ("Figures reveal £28m has been spent on work to create National Care Service", The Herald, October 2), it must be one of the most expensive preambles to yet another rearranging of the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Duncan F MacGillivray, Dunoon.