Letters: What is being done to the people of Palestine IS the crime

A reader says that the criminalisation of Palestine Action is inexplicable in light of the horrors being meted on the people of Palestine.

Palestine inaction

A whole section of the people of Britain are now deemed ‘criminal’. I am a pensioner from Cornwall. I don’t do stuff with Palestine Action, but I deeply resent the move to criminalise those who do.  

Chambers Dictionary defines crime as “an act of serious moral wrongdoing; something deplorable”. Can we not understand that, for many (most?) people, what we are seeing being done to the people of Palestine IS the crime? How are we meant to react to daily scenes of deliberate starvation, humiliation, displacement, injustice, repression and extermination? Please can someone in our government tell us? 

I have 20 years’ worth of copies of my own letters, emails and petitions that I have written/signed in support of Palestinians. What good have they done? Have they had any impact at all? Why did I bother? Might a different way of expressing my intense empathy be more effective? But what should I do then? Even to march peacefully in solidarity with others may soon be a criminal offence.  

Christine Hatfield, Cornwall 

Read more:

• ‘How many more children must die?’: British Palestinians plead with UK to act as Gaza’s people starve
• Thousands of children find hope in tent schools in Gaza: ‘We try to make the students smile’
• Gaza’s health workers need more than thoughts and prayers – they need protection

Dying wishes

Young people have been ignored in the debate on the Assisted Dying Bill. Children who are 14-year-olds now will be affected by the bill when it becomes operational in four years’ time. Terminally ill young people have very different ideas about death and dying from a very old person. The bill will eventually allow medical professionals to discuss assisted dying with young people approaching their 18th birthday.

This legislation will have considerable impacts on young people as they grow into a world where assisted dying, sanctioned by the state, is available as an option. Young people’s views are routinely ignored in so many ways, yet these and other legislative changes affect them profoundly. Hopefully the House of Lords will consult properly with young people and make any necessary amendments to the bill to reflect their concerns. 

Steven Walker, former head of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Anglia Ruskin University 

Waiting game

This is in response to your article about the 10-month wait time for PIP. I really enjoyed it; it was very accurate and it shows how many people are affected by this awful system. I’ve been waiting since May 2024 to hear from my PIP renewal. I’m worried I’m going to lose it. PIP helps with my bills, it pays for my transport, taxis, trains to get to appointments and see family. I can’t drive and I can’t afford to use the mobility component to get a car.  

My conditions have worsened since I sent off the PIP form, and I’m worried I will have to start all over again if I contact them. My last face-to-face assessment was so horrible and I felt so upset. It took a long time for an appeal which lasted five minutes on the phone. I was awarded the higher rate.  

But with all the changes to the benefits, I’m worried I won’t get anything, despite having a debilitating condition. It’s awful what disabled people are going through. Disabled benefits have completely different criteria to universal credit. 

Why should disabled people have to suffer? We didn’t choose to be disabled. 

Lydia Thomas, Kent 

Devil in the detail

Chaitanya Kumar’s article on Sizewell C presents a logical argument from an economist’s viewpoint. However, a possible oversight is the assumption the product on offer is a viable solution.  It’s worth taking a look at the record to date of the EPR reactor. Olkiluoto, Finland: a 14-year delay. Flamanville, France: a greater than 10-year delay. Hinkley Point C, UK: original estimate £18 billion, now over £40bn. You get the idea. 

Having spent 43 years in engineering design, I can attest to the veracity of ‘the devil is in the detail’. An immature or inadequate design can appear on the market due to commercial or accountancy pressures. At work there were ‘lessons learned’ meetings. Any lessons learned at these? Probably not. We’ve had HS2. Now we’re looking at Sizewell C. What do you think will happen? 

Greg Walsh, Woodbridge 

Fuel’s errand

Experience suggests a build time of at least 15 years before electricity might start being generated which makes it the 2040s rather than the very optimistic 2030s. Meanwhile huge amounts of carbon are being emitted with the construction of Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. This is the first time for a long while that I’ve heard nuclear fission described as ‘carbon free’ which is far from true. 

Worldwide uranium deposits are limited and often located in countries that may not be compliant to our needs. The doubtful nature of the funding policy is hinted at but it will certainly not result in consumers receiving cheap electricity! Nuclear power has never been and never will be the solution.  

Brian Edwards, energy manager (retired) 

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