Matt Kelly’s important article (“Meanwhile in Gaza…” TNW #442) has rekindled the sense of shame and despair I have felt as a British Jew for the past few months. I am appalled that the memory of the six million victims of the Holocaust is being tarnished and even desecrated by an Israeli leadership driven by vengeance and misplaced self-preservation, condemning its sons and daughters to a future where they will be outcasts. Not in my name.
Maurice Waller
Seaford, East Sussex
I feel shame, anger, frustration and hopelessness. My numb heart stopped me from crying as I try to wrap my head around the horrors described in Matt Kelly’s piece. I still feel numb writing this letter. Shame on humanity that we can’t do better. I’m glad TNW is at least trying to help us do better. Perspective clearly plays a part. Thank you for the most important piece of journalism this year.
Simon Tomes
Congratulations to Matt Kelly on his impressive and searing critique of the abject failure of the west to respond meaningfully to the Gaza catastrophe.
One has to wonder whether any action by the Netanyahu government in the Middle East would not be ultimately tolerated by the UK and the majority of the EU (Ireland and Norway are honourable exceptions). The Israeli prime minister seems to have concluded that he can do precisely what he likes.
David Daniel
I had been reassured up till now that TNW at least was taking a balanced view of the conflict by recognising where the blame lay – with Hamas for their random slaughter of over 1,200 innocent Israelis attending a dance event.
Now you have joined the baying media frenzy with cries of “war crime” and “intentional starvation”. Like the rest, your information comes from only one side.
The front page of a malnourished, ill infant is intended to shock, but there is no real background to the story.
You actually needed to go no further in the article than the fourth paragraph, the sentence where you say, “and it is all entirely avoidable”. That is true. If Hamas releases all hostages and agrees to an unconditional ceasefire, the war will end.
Anthony Baws.
Leigh-on-Sea
I thought the strapline “betrayed by our leaders” must be a misprint. It is clearly Gaza’s leaders that are the authors of Gaza’s misfortunes. The deplorable suffering is entirely the outcome of Hamas’s policies. This is what happens when you kidnap, torture, rape, murder and mutilate hundreds of a neighbouring country’s citizens, and then run home like cowards to hide behind your own women and children, refusing either to fight or to surrender.
Tim Millar
Somerset
Paul Mason, in his review of John Cassidy’s book (“Can we replace capitalism? TNW #442), asserts that no street protests have changed the world – but how is this assessed? I think they do change things. Sometimes it’s a subtle alteration in consciousness, but they are always a worthwhile expression of people’s beliefs and always affect the way things happen next.
Mary Fletcher
St Ives
I understand the issues for Millennials (“Dilettante”, by Marie Le Conte, TNW #442), given that my four adult children all fall into that category. However, it is well known that propensity to vote increases with age, and this fact influences the actions of those elected. It also did in the Brexit referendum, the result of which has caused or worsened some of the problems she identifies. Perhaps Marie Le Conte therefore could devote some of her undoubted energy towards action which would increase voter registration and election participation by those of her generation and Gen Z.
David Rogers
Tavistock, Devon
Re Matthew d’Ancona’s article on Keir Starmer, (“One year Keir: the man without a why” TNW #442). In 2025 we are now the same distance from 1997 as that year was from the moon landings of 1969. And yet Starmer’s Labour cling to the unattainable Blairite 1990s the same way the Tories fetishise the long-gone Thatcherite 1980s.
Will Goble
Rayleigh, Essex
The question “The man without a why” in relation to Sir Keir Starmer begs a second question. From 1995, I worked closely with Neil Kinnock. Neil strongly and correctly believes that we should rejoin the EU. Were we to do so, the Labour Party would be in a much stronger position to win the next election. The economic boost to Britain would improve the lives of ordinary people who would see lower prices in supermarkets and shops and growing economic confidence.
David Hogg
Bristol
I was a bit surprised to see Matthew d’Ancona selling the message that has been pushed by the chattering classes at the BBC in recent days that Keir Starmer needs a narrative. As he says, Nigel Farage has a narrative. However, this bears only a tenuous relationship to reality and this is clearly a strong element of its appeal to some parts of the public. Who does not like a well-constructed fantasy?
I have sympathy for Starmer as he tries to negotiate the morass of ideologies from all sides of the political spectrum, including his own party, and find a type of socialism that is sustainable in the present economic conditions. But I do not think that dressing up his policies as a good story will add much.
Jim Slattery
Galloway
Thank you to Alastair Campbell, who has summed up the Trump presidency so accurately (“Alastair Campbell’s Diary” TNW #440). His analysis of Trump’s obsession with the world’s “strongmen” and his seeming inability to realise how this all shows the world clearly his own weakness was accurate and insightful. He mentions what to me, as an American, is truly scary – the obvious fact that Trump is lurching from one thing to another with no plan at all. Finally, I appreciate his last sentence that there is resistance growing, and that “… Trump is not America.” Thank you and please tell all your friends!
Ruth Anne Kendrick
I was feeling very humble as Tanit Koch (TNW #441, “Cutting red tape”) was convincing me of the overwhelming superiority of Teutonic inefficiency, but then she blew it. My Norman, tribal Celtic mongrel heart swelled with pride as I compared the pathetic German railway problems – €140m overspend and six-year delay – with our own magnificent £36bn overspend and 10-year delay to deliver half of the least useful fraction of HS2 with the rest cancelled entirely.
When it comes to railways, Britannia rules.
Peter Basford
Herts
BELOW THE LINE
Re: “Trump’s army makes America poor again”, (TNW online). Those who voted for Trump and thought he would improve their lives be careful what you wish for! He does not care a damn about the poor or struggling of America, he is only interested in becoming wealthier.
Adam Primhak
What a depressing catalogue of human stupidity and aggression (“What if China goes to war?” TNW #442). Stupidity as in the UK’s pathetic delusions of power which partly lay behind the insanity of Brexit, and aggression as in China’s “one China” policy, which means it lays claim to Taiwan.
Alexander Blackburn
Re: “One year Keir, the man without a why”, TNW #442. Excellent article. British politics – or rather, the political system – seems to have run into the sand. As Yuval Harari says, trust in institutions is collapsing the world over, and, along with the feeling that prosperity is in reverse for millions, is why the extreme right, with its promises of simple, if brutal, policies is thriving.
Starmer would have been an excellent PM 20 years ago. Today we need something else – perhaps a magician.
RSP Zatzen
I don’t buy he never knew he was aping Enoch.
Denny Ford
