Letters: Respite from the referendum

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Labour MP Naz Shah as she tells the House of Commons in London that she "wholeheartedly apologises" for words she used in a Facebook post about Israel (PA)

The Silly Season must have come early. Nas Shah posted a rather stupid thing on social media long before becoming an MP and when exposed, apologised and was suspended from the Labour Party. This created a feeding frenzy in the media, both print and broadcast, aimed at suggesting that closet antisemitism is common in the Party and allowing the Tories respite from coverage of their own damaging schisms.

Is this overreaction to claimed antisemitism really an opportunity to move away from the tedium of the referendum debate with the same arguments being recycled over and over again ad nauseum? I am sure journalists are by now heartily sick of covering the referendum and the prospect of two more months of it is a great incentive to grasp at anything as a diversion. In other circumstances Ms Shah's suspension would be a two day wonder at most and not an item of national importance.

Patrick Cleary

Devon

Brexit and the baby-boomers

It took a decade or two for the benefits of our membership of the EEC/EU to help us achieve the increased prosperity our country enjoys today. Were we to leave it would take a similarly long time for the impacts to be seriously felt.

Many of the older voters whom Andrew Grice tells us ('Out campaign edges ahead in referendum race' - Saturday 30th April) are the most likely to vote in the referendum will by then be dead or incapacitated. The 'baby-boomer generation' is already thought by many to have mortgaged their descendants' futures; it would be a tragic were their votes (possibly driven by nostalgia for empire or yearning for the pre-digital age) to add further to the next generation's woes.

Along with extending the franchise to 16 year-olds, shouldn't we perhaps think about withdrawing it from those of us who are over 65? This simple step, along with saving cash by reducing the number of people needed to count the votes, might even encourage our governments to think a bit more long-term.

Brian Hughes

Cheltenham

Hillsborough has been set right in history

Police forces, and those in authority over us generally, do themselves, and those they purport to support, an enduring disservice when they deny truth and justice.

The tale of the Hillsborough tragedy is a story writ small for the history of peoples everywhere. If the humble people of Liverpool had not been able to establish the truth of what had happened on that fateful day, a massive lie would have been written into the history books.

This unjust denial of the essential need of the victims' loved ones to establish the truth would have bred long-lasting distrust and disrespect for authority and policing in particular. Another narrative would have been established, one that would be passed down from generation to generation, that authority is anti-people and cannot be trusted.

When those in authority recognise the veracity of this they will understand that truth and justice denied (or delayed) makes the job of keeping public order much more difficult and is not conducive to the bringing about of harmonious societies.

Geoff Naylor

Hampshire

Who killed the NHS? Let the conspiracy theories begin

John Rentoul, from his vantage point at the heart of the Labour party, is able to reveal: "Not even Jeremy Corbyn believes Hunt and the Tories want to dismantle the NHS," and goes on to ask "so why the conspiracy theory?" (27, April).

As a conspiracy theory, however, it does have some supporting evidence. The book Hunt co-authored with several of his colleagues offered an alternative to the principle of funding the NHS via general taxation to one " by way of universal insurance, to purchase health care from the provider of their choice,” and continues “Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private and public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain.”

Hunt was happy to have his name published as co-author until 2010 when on being made Health Secretary he was challenged by his Labour Shadow, at which point he demurred from those sentiments, crediting Douglas Carswell with these musings.

So an ex Tory MP, Tory MPs Michael Gove, Daniel Hannan, Greg Clark, David Gauke, and Kwasi Kwarteng, along with Hunt felt confident enough in their collective plans for the NHS and much else, to put them on public display, but Rentoul is able to authoritatively tell us that even Corbyn does not believe the Tories intend to privatise the NHS, despite the views of a number of Tory MPs in positions of power. That so many Tory MPs, MEPs, Peers, their friends and families have private health insurance, enjoy executive positions on the boards of, and hold shares in, private health care companies can't possibly be an indicator of where there hearts are?

Conspiracy, or conspiracy theory, John?

Eddie Dougall

Suffolk

Can Brexit guarantee workers’ rights?

Michael Gove MP, has, described EU employment laws as “excessive” and says they should have been devolved to national control. Another Brexit campaigner, Dominic Raab MP, in 2011 called for a full repeal of the working time rules.

Amongst the “regulations from the nameless bureaucrats in Brussels” (as they like to say) are the following protection rights for workers:

Rights for agency workers; maternity and paternity leave; anti-discrimination laws; equal pay for women for work of equal value; paid holidays for all, including part- time workers; parental leave with time off for urgent family reasons; and protection for the workforce when companies change ownership.

Can we afford to risk these rights by leaving the EU?

Mike Dods

Ken Livingstone insenstitive or antisemitic?

I have two books on my bookshelf that I have never read. However the title of one in itself speaks volumes, ‘The Transfer Agreement, The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine’, by Edwin Black. The back cover states that, as part of this pact, “the Zionists halted the worldwide Jewish-led anti-Nazi boycott that threatened to topple the Hitler regime in it’s first year”. The other, ‘Zionism in the Age of the Dictators’, by Lenni Brenner, shows on the cover a medal struck in Germany in 1938, which has a swastika on one side and the Star of David on the other. It tells the story of how that medal came about. Brenner says that the Ha’avara (pact) “removed the million-strong Zionist movement from the front line of anti-Nazi resistance”.

Edwin Black agues that, in the terrible circumstances of the time, the pact was justified and I am not implying that he is wrong.

What I am saying is that what Ken Livingstone recently said about Hitler may have been expressed in insensitive, even stupid language, but it was not antisemitic and it was not based on ignorance.

Brendan O’Brien

London