WITH all the coverage of the death of Alex Salmond (October 13), the case of the SNP MSP John Mason went somewhat under the radar.

He was expelled from the SNP for claiming that Israel was not engaged in genocide in Gaza. The SNP was horrified one of its own could harbour such a view. What is intriguing about this is the well-known and often-repeated goal of both Hamas and Hezbollah is to push all Israelis out "from the river to the sea". That sounds a lot more like a genocidal action.

In the quest for balance why is the SNP not more vocal about this? In expelling Mr Mason for his views might it not just be exposing its own biases?

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

Let there be compromise

ISRAEL is now out of control like a horse with the bit between its teeth running wild.

What is the Israeli government gaining by pursuing this reckless course?

On the one hand, it is stoking up hatred in the communities it has ravaged so inhumanely, thereby creating large pools of the disaffected whose hearts will harbour harsh thoughts of revenge for years to come.

It has rendered so many innocent civilians homeless and destroyed the infrastructure upon which the civilised living of those now displaced persons depended. There can be no profit in conducting such aggressive activities from which they will harvest undying animosity and for which they will eventually be forced to make reparations.

It is so tragic that a nation once exiled from its God-given homeland and whose people were subject to the policy of extermination under the Holocaust does not seem to have any sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians who were robbed of most of their territory to accommodate the state of Israel and are now suffering massive fatalities in this awful conflict.

Of course, Israel has the undeniable right to self-defence but it has to be within the limits of justifiable retaliation. It has gone far beyond those limits and we have had to listen to Benjamin Netanyahu ordering UN peacekeepers out of Lebanon to avoid their becoming victims of Israeli assaults upon Hezbollah.

All sides in this terrible confrontation have to draw in their horns, resort to rational thinking and to accept that there can be no ordered and peaceful outcome from the hostilities currently showing no signs of abating.

Let all sides agree to a ceasefire to conduct genuine peace talks to allow for acceptable compromises all sides can agree to.

Without such compromises there will never be peace in what is ironically called the Holy Land.

And Jesus wept.

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.

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Please support assisted dying

THROUGH your columns before I urged people to lobby their MSPs in support of Liam McArthur’s Members’ Bill on assisted dying which is currently before the Scottish Parliament.

The Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Private Members’ Bill on assisted dying had its First Reading in the House of Commons this week. Her bill applies to legislation in England and Wales, but, whatever the apparent anomaly, Scottish MPs can vote on such legislation. This vital issue transcends borders and many Scots have relatives in England and Wales.

Many people opposed to assisted dying on deeply-held philosophical or religious grounds have changed their minds, often when they witnessed suffering in dying. I now urge your readers to write to their MPs, urging them in turn to support Ms Leadbeater’s Bill and vote in favour of it at the voting stage. If, on clarifying their position, their MPs are not in favour of assisted dying, ask them to look carefully at the issue again and consider changing their stance.

My husband died of cancer in December 2021. Within the confines of the law, the unstinting and compassionate support of a dedicated multidisciplinary community team enabled him to die at home, but his severe pain and acute distress could not be mitigated. His unbearable suffering continued until his death. Even when we were told he would die within hours, as he did, still nothing could be done to alleviate his condition.

In an age of modern medicine this is unjustifiable and inhumane when the wish to die has been clearly expressed, as my husband, when in lucid and sound mind, told a doctor unequivocally one week before he died. Scientists will always strive to improve palliative care, but medicine is not an exact science and the terrible truth is that palliative care simply does not invariably work for countless people. We witnessed this failure, helpless to help the person dearest to us.

Ours should be a compassionate society, as in many countries, where people's wishes and beliefs, for or against assisted dying, are respected and protected by law. The purpose of any legislation, framed with proper safeguards, must be to allow freedom of choice, not to impose any course of action on any individual.

The confines of the present laws are too confined and these laws must change. Please lobby your MPs and your MSPs to support and vote in favour of the assisted dying legislation in the English and Scottish parliaments.

Hilda Butler, Glasgow.

We must stop the arsonists

I REFER to your excellent heritage-themed articles of October 6 and consequent letters (October 13).

A forward-thinking nation should be very concerned about the vulnerability of irreplaceable heritage buildings to fires (in themselves long-term health harming and polluting events that society gives much too little regard to). It should also be very concerned as to the type of action habitually taken in the aftermath.

For example, Ayr Railway Station and Hotel, a heritage building of national importance, has very recently been all but pulled down in its entirety by South Ayrshire Council in a highly contentious action amounting to little more than total site clearance. As described by Esther R Clark of Ayr Development Trust (Letters October 13), "with its stained glass, marble and mosaics, ironwork and more, it was beautiful". Absolutely so; I had first hand experience of the "firmness, commodity and delight-rich" building as both a regular daily user of the busy station and as a wintertime evening Ayr Film Society "meet-up" user of the splendid and welcoming hotel lounge). I would also add, by way of emphasis, that it was extraordinarily well built by our Victorian forebears. Its splendidly crafted masonry primary structure was of real strength, style and substance (as would have been obvious to anyone looking over the fence and observing the demolition contractor struggling to smash it down, bit by bit, over a period of months). This wonderful traveller gateway building was no demolition pushover. Anything but. And now it is, to all intents and purposes, gone. Lost to the community, lost to travellers, lost to the nation.

Losses needn't happen. They are avoidable. It is likely that most of the fires to heritage buildings are facilitated by lax security measures (astonishingly, there were two such fires at Ayr Railway Station and Hotel: the first fire, successfully contained by the fire brigade, having resulted in no significant security upgrade by way of preventing the second blaze which comprehensively burnt out extensive amounts of secondary structure). It's a failing all too often compounded by the ready recourse, by councils generally, to the "demolition on safety grounds" option that bypasses the legal protections afforded to listed buildings. It's an option that, notwithstanding the demanding constructions that make such structures special, is usually based upon inexpert assessment by non-conservation-accredited structural engineers (hence the SAVE Britain's Heritage petition which is presently under consideration by the Scottish Government).

When all is said and done, however, it is surely time to make owners and/or custodians fully accountable for the inadequate security measures that allow arsonists to so readily, and frequently, enter vacant buildings, and thereby set the devastating fires that consequently cost society, so dearly, in so many ways.

As Carol Woodward (Letters, October 13) so correctly says as regards the loss of our unique old buildings ,"this is obviously working against the long-term reputation and prosperity and the wellbeing of citizens".

Matters surely cannot be allowed to continue as they are. Scrutiny, oversight and accountability (and legislative amendments to suit) are urgently required.

Allan Stewart, retired architect, Ayr.

Liam McArthur at a media event promoting his Assisted Dying BillLiam McArthur at a media event promoting his Assisted Dying Bill (Image: PA)

Green sums don't add up

POLITICIANS do not have a clue about the law of unintended consequences. They set off on a crusade to save the planet and ended up in a green financial mess.

They want to reduce the number of petrol/diesel vehicles on UK roads and replace them with electric or hybrid vehicles. There are 32 million petrol/diesel vehicles on UK roads and four million electric or hybrid vehicles. The Treasury had expected to collect £24.3 billion in fuel duty in the tax year 2023/24 but fell well short because EVs do not pay fuel duty. The increased take-up of electric vehicles is expected to cost the Treasury billions every year and reach £13bn a year in lost fuel duty by 2030.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow.

US election will be delayed

RESPONDING tot David Pratt's article "Will Israel cross the red line of targeting Iran’s nuclear sites?" (October 13), the USrael (sic) Deep State is desperate to stave off a Trump win and a probable Ukraine deal. They'll delay the upcoming election using Joe Biden's extensive powers under the National Emergencies Act. Of course an emergency will have to be fabricated. Expect some kind of false-flag operation, and a delayed election.

George Morton, Rosyth.