Letter of the week: The case for a healthy party of the right

How can it be OK in the middle of the 21st century, after everything that happened last century, that we still feel unsupported and neglected? That’s the polite version of how I feel. 

I have always thought the British are not really tolerant: they’re apathetic when it comes to antisemitism. Thank you for contributing to the debate. I appreciate it and I’m sure many others do.
Catherine Jones

It really shouldn’t be hard not to conflate the murderous far right government in a foreign country with British people in Golders Green. I don’t know why those who do it think it in any way helps the Palestinian people.

I completely agree with the sentiment of this article, I would just make one comment: there were five serious attempts to set fire to mosques last year. I don’t remember any of those making the front pages, and I definitely don’t remember any condemnation.
Ann Harries

One thing that needs to be talked about is the gut reaction of some to call those of us who abhor the actions of Israel antisemitic. I hate Israel’s policies. I don’t hate Israelis, and I absolutely do not hate Britons who happen to be Jewish. 

But I have been asked, pointedly, if I am antisemitic. I don’t think so. Yet even to be asked suggests the questioner thinks so, and that makes me step back. How do we unpick this? 
Rosy Jones

I write as a Jew who vehemently opposes the actions of Netanyahu and his government, including those in the IDF who unquestioningly carry out his reprehensible and, yes, genocidal orders. 

I have marched together with many other Jews alongside thousands of demonstrators in favour of a free Palestinian state without being subjected to any antisemitism. On the contrary, our presence has been appreciated warmly. 
Maurice Waller

Re: “The case for a British post-populist right,” by Matthew d’Ancona, TNW #481

Excellent article. I’ve long known that our electoral system could allow a populist to come to power. Although I’m on the left, I agree that our polity needs a healthy party of the right. 

The Tories’ Faustian pact in making Boris Johnson leader was paid for by the ejection of the MPs with the most integrity and intelligence. It is telling that Kemi Badenoch reacted with great hostility to the new organisation set up by Ruth Davidson and Andy Street. I guess a new party is the way forward.
Martin Treacy

Much simpler for the nu-Tories to admit Brexit was a mistake and campaign to rejoin. Also adopt one of the successful European models for health and social care, demonstrating pragmatism and openness. With those two policies pluralism is a natural bedfellow.
Alexander Dale

RE: “Theydon Bois and the fight against the young,” by Lucy Reade, TNW #481

Once we started thinking of property in terms of its financial value, once we started to think of education as tradeable qualifications, we screwed the young. We boomers have a lot to apologise for; the best form of restitution would be wealth taxes to raise money to build good houses and to write off student debt.
Simon Durrant

Re: “The problem with Polanski,” by James Ball, TNW #481

Polanski has charisma and chutzpah but is flawed. There are issues or policies that make me uneasy, yet I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. However, Farage gets away with blue murder. He is mired in scandals and his policies are divisive and despicable. If I had to choose, I would have to gamble on Polanski. 
Liz Court

This piece cited the stabbings of two Jews recently in Golders Green. What it failed to mention, like many articles in other news outlets, was that the perpetrator had also stabbed a Muslim man the same day.
Susan Bagheri

Re: “A dangerous obsession” by Mic Wright, TNW #481

The “answer” wasn’t really explicitly stated: the Daily Mail hates Meghan because she is mixed race. The obsession is rooted in racism and anyone with any insight knows that. 
Will Goble

Re: “Why didn’t we call her the Queen’s Mother?” by Peter Trudgill, TNW #481

Peter’s explanation is ingenious but wrong. The Queen Mother’s status stemmed from her coronation. She was a queen in her own right, but was given the additional title to distinguish her from her daughter, the other Queen Elizabeth. 

She would still have been Queen Mother if she had had a son who became king. 
Stephen McNair, Norwich

Re: “The hate she gets” by Ian Winwood, TNW #481

Perhaps the parent who had The Hate U Give banned from a school in Dorset had forgotten that Romeo and Juliet features street fights, underage sex and the use of drugs. This play goes down well with Year 10, who may themselves encounter all those things.

That parent also objected because he claimed that Angie Thomas depicted white people “as the baddies”.  Shakespeare dealt with that, too. Iago is a bad white man, who from envy destroys black-skinned Othello.
Alisoun Gardner-Medwin
Heddon-on-the-Wall, Newcastle

I am the parent mentioned in this article. The Hate U Give has some troubling anti-white (ie racist) passages. I did finish it, but it’s not a very good book. I predict that it will not enter the pantheon of classics and will fade into the past with the BLM craze that encouraged its creation.

The Hate U Give contains 89 f-bombs. My daughters know that word, but I don’t want authority figures tacitly condoning its use in formal situations. That will do them no good at all.
James Farquharson 

Re: “Secret Service is today’s spy thriller wrapped in yesterday’s politics” by Ros Taylor, TNW #481

Ros is right – I challenge anyone to stay awake during the first episode of Secret Service. It’s unspeakably dull. Spooks or The Night Manager it is not.
David Key

BELOW THE LINE

Re: “Unwelcome to the World Cup”, by Charlotte McDonald Gibson, TNW #481

Anyone who dares to risk being allowed through US Homeland Security and all that it entails (sound of latex gloves snapping on), which may include having to provide your family’s history going back four generations, retinal scans and certificate of no criminal activity, into Trumpopia to attend any of the World Cup games would deserve a Fifa medal.
Colin Hayes

Re: “The left has no concept of radical evil,” by Paul Mason, TNW #481

I was raised a Roman Catholic and taught by nuns to be conscious of evil and to fear the devil. God hardly got a look-in. I ceased believing nearly 70 years ago – but I remain aware of evil.
John Simpson

Re: “Things can only get worse,” by Patience Wheatcroft, TNW #481

I agree that we are missing the point. Surely the point of a government, especially one that is left of centre, is to look after everyone, especially those without. We should judge our society on the welfare of the poorest and weakest, not on how many billionaires we have, nor on the comfort of people like myself, retired baby boomers with no mortgage and a final salary pension.
Simon Durrant