Theresa May seems to have forgotten the ANC’s position on Israel and Palestine during her visit to South Africa

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Theresa May’s recent visit to South Africa shone a very bright light on domestic politics. In the course of her trip there, the prime minister expressed a hitherto hidden respect and reverence for the life and work of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) which he led.

She even made a pilgrimage to the Robben Island prison where Mandela spent part of his 27-year imprisonment for fighting the racist apartheid state of South Africa.

May’s reverence for Mandela was totally absent while he was actually alive and struggling against apartheid. She is a member of the Conservative Party which for much of his incarceration described Mandela as a “terrorist” and the ANC as a “terrorist organisation”. Under Margaret Thatcher, the Tories did everything in their power to support and strengthen the racist apartheid regime and ensure its survival.

This is in stark contrast to the record of Jeremy Corbyn, who is currently being vilified by his enemies as an “antisemite”. Corbyn stood against apartheid and called for Nelson Mandela’s release when it mattered.

Corbyn was arrested for protesting against apartheid while one Tory youth group wore badges bearing the words“Hang Nelson Mandela”. Corbyn stood against the oppression of black South African’s under apartheid. Corbyn stands against the oppression of Palestinians by Israel today. That does not make him an antisemite.

In 2012, the ANC adopted as official policy the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. The South African government has also banned products made in illegal settlements in the West Bank. This was done in the spirit of the statesman who said “we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”.

This is done in the spirit of a statesman who, eight months, after his release from prison for fighting racism, made common cause with the Palestinian people and said of the Israel/Palestine conflict:

“If one has to refer to any of the parties as a terrorist state, one might refer to the Israeli government, because they are the people who are slaughtering defenceless and innocent Arabs in the Occupied Territories, and we don’t regard that as acceptable.”

That statesman was Nelson Mandela. The same Nelson Mandela was described by Theresa May in glowing terms in the visitor books on Robben island:

“His legacy lives on in the hopes and dreams of young people here in South Africa and around the world”.

It is not antisemitic to be anti-Zionist.

Sasha Simic
London N16

Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism​

It was with concern that I read your selection of letters condemning Rabbi Jonathan Sacks for his condemnation of Jeremy Corbyn.

Each letter – notably from non Jews – repeated the same bigoted views as Mr.Corbyn has been accused of.

Letter number one, for example, implies that UK Jews are somehow provoking a worse response, and letter number two refers to UK Jews as “that sector” that demands, apparently, some sort of special treatment.

The third letter contained the dragging out of Rachel Corrie, and the usual litany of alleged Israeli crimes.

Then we also have the absurd “Arabs are Semites too” comment in letter two. Basically, this selection repeated the very slurs and accusations that has attracted the protest and criticism of Corbyn, and once again rejected them as “smears” as well as repeating the almost paranoid bigotry of a type of UK antisemitism. The Muslim correspondent’s letter illustrated, unfortunately, the muddling of Jew hatred in the UK with “anti-Zionism” that is proving to be the poison chalice for Labour.

CA Pape

London NW6

The prime minister in Nigeria

Theresa May’s visit to Nigeria coincided with the International Day of the Disappeared. Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, was disappeared by the Nigerian authorities on 14 September 2017. His family home was besieged, and he hasn’t been seen or heard of since. His parents also disappeared that day. The agony of the family is unbearable. Kanu’s “crime” was galvanising widespread support for a referendum on Biafran self-determination. Nnamdi Kanu is also a UK citizen. Like many Biafrans, he was forced out of Nigeria for asserting his Biafran identity.

I hope that while Theresa May negotiates post-Brexit trade deals with the Nigerian authorities that she will also highlight the disappearance of Nnamdi Kanu. They will know what has happened to him. The prime minister should be insisting that Nigeria holds a fully independent investigation in to what happened that day, especially because a British citizen is involved.

This year, as we prepare the list of Biafrans who have been disappeared in recent years, we name five who vanished that day. They are added to a list of well over 20 Biafrans who have disappeared since 2016. This doesn’t include all those who have been killed whilst protesting peacefully, or those that have been injured.

Solomon Uchenna Egbo
Address supplied

Mental health services in Scotland aren’t helping young girls

The recent Children’s Society survey indicating that more than a fifth of 14-year-old-girls in the UK say they had self-harmed is a truly alarming statistic and highlights the mental health crisis we are facing.

Early mental health intervention can have an incredibly powerful impact on the lives of children and young people, such as those self-harming, with benefits continuing into adulthood. In this context, the ability to access school-based counselling services at an early stage in a convenient location can prove truly transformational.

However, children and young people in Scotland are subject to a postcode lottery of access to support and it has been estimated that more than 250,000 have no access to school-based counselling services.

Yet, unlike other parts of the UK, there are limited counselling services in Scotland and it is important that there is additional funding for this in the forthcoming Scottish budget. Scotland is currently the only UK country with no national strategy for school-based counselling services.

By contrast, counselling services are guaranteed in all secondary schools in Northern Ireland and Wales. In Wales the vast majority of children and young people who received counselling (85 per cent) did not require any form of onward referral once counselling sessions had been completed.

The benefits are therefore obvious and the cost of five sessions of counselling is equivalent to just one contact with mental health services. In this context it has been estimated that it would cost £9m to provide counselling in all Scotland’s secondary schools, out of a total health budget of around £13.5bn, a drop in the ocean.

All pupils in Scotland’s schools should have access to trained counsellors in schools. The remarkable results from elsewhere speak for themselves.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition:
Tom McGhee, chairman, Spark of Genius
Duncan Dunlop, chief executive, Who Cares? Scotland
Stuart Jacob, director, Falkland House School
Niall Kelly, managing director, Young Foundations
Lynn Bell, CEO, Love Learning Scotland
Edinburgh

Brexit and the single market

It is a nonsense to suppose that the benefits of merely gaining access to the single market outweigh those of leaving it.

In creating a frontier free Europe for trade, the single market has encouraged other countries to join the EU, increasing its negotiating leverage. This has enabled it to stand its ground in negotiating bilateral trade deals in a world dominated by large economies such as USA, China and Japan and soon the emerging economies of countries like India and Brazil.

Roger Hinds
Surrey

I was scrolling through the Indy100 (highly recommended) last night and read the recent tweet from Jacob Rees-Mogg: “Trust in politics will evaporate if Brexit were not delivered”. Well, Jacob, once you proposed that we should have two referendums on Brexit and that the time to have the second one would be after negotiations were completed.

This I suggest you said to increase the likelihood of a referendum taking place, knowing very well that should the result of it be Leave then you would oppose any call for a second referendum. Personally, whether we leave or stay, my trust in politics will be unaffected. However, my trust in you, like my trust in so many other high profile Brexiteers, has already boiled away.

David Rose
Sutton Coldfield

Dress codes in tennis

The discussion of equal rights in sports has taken another hit with the penalty given to Alize Cornet during the US open. She took off her top to correct its orientation – admittedly it’s a bit silly to put it on the wrong way. It was not particularly immodest as more could be seen at any of the local beach without causing offence.

The ruling of “unsportsmanlike conduct” seems unrealistic in this case as it suggests either a tantrum on a loss or something closer to the displays designed to distract or intimidate an opponent. The fact that it is a “man” offence also adds to the folly, as men can take off their tops without any penalty.

Tennis has improved with more equitable prize money although some still debate the three/five sets difference. There is still a long way to go, although it is pleasing to see some initial positives coming from this.

Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne