Now more than ever, Starmer must stand up for Gaza

More vacuous words will not end the catastrophic devastation and unimaginable suffering of millions of Palestinian citizens currently condemned to die, or, if they are lucky enough to escape the carnage, to be added to the statistics of refugees fleeing conflict and perhaps seeking to make the hazardous journey to a relatively safe haven in the UK.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.

• IT is shocking that Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Jonathan Powell, who led negotiations over surrendering control of the Chagos Islands, as the Government's National Security Adviser.

What will his next moves be? To surrender the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar?

Leslie Mutch, Dingwall.

Read more letters

• Trump's win should be a reality check for our leaders
• Cowardly Democrats only have themselves to blame for their defeat

Blaming the wrong targets

ALEXANDER McKay (Letters, November 8) rightly considers Donald Trump's victory as a wake-up call. He then promotes all the wrong reasons for such a call.

All those people around the world who blame immigration or equalities legislation for their ills should indeed not be dismissed and ignored, but educated.

The hoovering-up of most of the West's productivity gains by the rich, for the last 45 years or so, has broken the post-war accord, greatly increased regional and personal inequality and caused an explosion in the number of billionaires. These billionaires are quite adept at shifting the blame to immigrants and "the liberal elites", and sadly, a lot of people buy that myth.

Now, if you believe the rumours, those billionaires are going to be at the heart of decision-making in the world's most powerful country. Their tactics clearly work.

Blaming the wrong targets is the very cause of real fascism that Mr McKay fears.

Iain Cope, Glasgow.

Trump's approach to foreign policy

IT was breathtaking to see the Trump fans coming out of the woodwork in today's letters (November 8). The icing on the cake was the fatuous assertion by Jill Stephenson about the need for nuclear weapons for countries to prevent invasion.

Those of your correspondents who crowed about Donald Trump's ability to bring peace to the Middle East don't understand the purely transactional nature of his approach to foreign policy; his son-in-law Jared Kushner banked a cool billion from the Saudis last time Mr Trump was in office and the Kushner family have a friendship with the Netanyahu family which stretches back decades. There are already plans to settle parts of Gaza and build beachfront condominiums.

Turning to Ms Stephenson's belief in nuclear magic, I repeat for the umpteenth time that the weapons based in Ukraine were Soviet weapons and after the collapse of the Soviet Union they reverted to Russia which has always controlled them in the same way the US government controls weapons in the Dakotas, Montana and elsewhere.

Finally, I watched the election results with a retired British Navy commodore (CBE) who was ashen-faced at the thought of the challenge now facing his US counterparts again. I'd like to remind your readers that Donald Trump stated he would like to have General Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, executed for treason because he refused to deploy troops against protectors exercising their constitutional rights on the streets of Washington.

Marjorie Ellis Thompson, Edinburgh.

Quotes to ponder

ONE sure way to win an election is to have been the target of two assassination attempts, albeit by two alleged Republicans.

The two quotations that seem to me to encapsulate the event are one from the Bible: "As you sow you may reap", in other words the American people may learn the hard way of their folly. The second quotation which came to mind is one by a Mr Dick Tuck, a defeated Californian candidate in 1966, who stated: "The people have voted, the bastards."

Robin Johnston, Newton Mearns.

Badenoch is not the answer

HOW would you describe Kemi Badenoch's first introduction to PMQs as Leader of the Opposition in her PMQS debut ("Badenoch attacks ‘cruel family farms tax’ ", The Herald, November 7)?

Her performance was underwhelming and she failed to see the irony of her accusation in accusing Keir Starmer of reading scripted responses to her questions, when she herself was reading out the scripted questions in front of her.

Of course, she has a limited pool of opportunists to draw on for her shadow cabinet and she has had to resort to two charlatans in Robert Jenrick and Priti Patel to help fill the posts. If the stories are true that more honourable colleagues refused a position in her coterie, then it does not augur well for the duration of her tenure as the prima inter pares in such a group.

All she can hope for is that an unexpected turn of events renders Labour's plans to reform the foundations of the country's economy untenable and in the doldrums. Then and then only will her party return to power with crocodile tears to impose a small state where low taxation limits the range of public services for the general population.

If Keir Starmer's vision is not the answer, then Ms Badenoch's is no more than a cul-de-sac from which we will have no hope and no escape.

Just keep in mind the current state of our economy and public services inherited from a bankrupt band of small staters.

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.

Reeves' blow to charities

HUNTINGTON’S disease is an inherited condition that damages the brain over time, robbing those impacted of their ability to walk, talk, eat, drink and care for themselves. Families who have this disease visited upon them require specialist support from those who understand the condition. For the last 35 years the source of that specialist support has been our charity, Scottish Huntington’s Association.

When the current UK administration came to power but a few months ago promising “change” without increasing taxes on “working people,” who would have predicted this would entail hammering charities such as ourselves with eye-watering National Insurance increases? And, by extension, families whose lives are blighted by this appalling, complex and extremely difficult to manage condition who are without doubt amongst the most vulnerable, needy and marginalised in our society.

The entire charity sector is increasingly burdened by climbing costs, funding issues, recruitment and retention challenges and an increased demand for services. All too many have had to close their doors, with more expected to follow. Additional burdens being imposed by government at this juncture are as helpful as a vigorous kick in the spleen. Coming just weeks after the Prime Minister announced a “new partnership that can harness civil society’s full potential” this must surely be an unfortunate oversight, and one that simply cannot be allowed to stand given the scale of its implications for the not-for-profit sector and the many thousands of people who depend upon it in the absence of alternative statutory services.

Alistair Haw, Chief Executive Officer, Scottish Huntington's Association, Paisley.

Kemi Badenoch during her first Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday (Image: PA)

Zonal pricing a fool's errand

"WE only have a generalised assumption that the transition to renewable energy will bring everyone's bills down, " says Brian Wilson ("Forbes needs to stop grandstanding and answer the hard questions", The Herald, November 7).

Britain's energy strategy is a disaster. Why else do we have gas and electricity costs that are four times that of consumers in the USA? Witness the experience in Germany, which has similarly embraced renewables and is seeing its manufacturing industry labouring in an unprecedented fashion.

The notion that energy sourced from wind and solar are "cheap" or ever likely to reduce in cost is derived from an ignorance of the laws of physics and a failure to undertake some basic arithmetic.

The main factors undermining wind power are the high capital cost of each installed unit of capacity, the poor energy yield, the ageing technology of turbines which means that little to no efficiency gains are possible, the relatively short operational life of a wind turbine and the intermittency of generating performance which curtails output and requires expenditure elsewhere in the grid to compensate for it.

The main inputs to a wind farm are concrete, steel, labour and loan interest. Are these ever likely to go down in price? Remember that the current turbine estate was built with the assistance of borrowings sourced in a period of abnormally cheap debt. If the wind isn't going to start blowing more and the generating efficiency of a turbine cannot significantly improve, the unit cost of electricity cannot possible reduce. There would be no wind industry at all without the multi-billions of annual taxpayer subsidies that it is paid.

Mr Wilson toying with the fool's errand of zonal electricity pricing may please his desire for an intellectual puzzle. However, this is merely an exercise in benefitting one consumer at the expense of another. The overall answer is the same: our electricity is too expensive and renewables are a major reason why. This is what Mr Wilson should really be puzzling over.

Andy Cartwright, Glasgow.

Overhead click

READING David Miller's comments on asinine motorway gantry signs (Letters, November 8) reminds me of watching an episode of McCoist and McAuley back in the late 1990s, a comedy chat show hosted by the eponymous Ally and Fred.

One of their guests (I think it might have been impressionist Alistair McGowan) was making a comment about these huge signs up above warning drivers about their behaviours such as "Don't drink and drive".

A rather sheepish "Super Ally" bemoaned that "to be fair, they're easily missed" and raised the biggest laugh of the evening.

This was, of course, not long after Mr McCoist had been fined heavily at the Sheriff Court for driving whilst above the legal limit.

This error of judgment earned the prolific striker the sobriquet "Super Swally" which he accepted, with atypical bashfulness, as an endearment.

Gordon Fisher, Stewarton.