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Letters

Wednesday, 5th March 2008

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

Moor to the point

Sir: I am relieved to know that my concerns about the possibility of a President Obama are due not to any substantive matters but solely to my ‘primeval racist fears of the black super-male’.

Before reading Venetia Thompson’s article (‘Obama is an Othello for our times’, 23 February) I had mistakenly attributed my opposition to Senator Obama to his hard-left notions about government policy. It is a comfort to know that objection — and others, such as his lack of executive experience and minimal tenure in national politics — are mere self-deluding artifices to conceal the incorrigible racism within my fearful and embittered psyche.

I can now stop fretting over superficialities — like wanting my country not to be led by a socialist — and focus on making amends for my thoughtcrimes. Thank you, Venetia, for helping me to see the light. (Meanwhile, is it true what they say?)

Bill Wray
North Kingstown, Rhode Island

Disproportionate claims

Sir: According to its website, the British–Israel Communications and Research Centre, of which Lorna Fitzsimons is CEO (‘Israel is getting ready to invade Gaza’, 23 February), is an organisation ‘devoted to creating a more supportive environment for Israel in the UK’. These aims might be more easily fulfilled if she did not put her name to articles that read as though they were taken directly from Israeli government handouts.

To take only one example, Fitzsimons goes on at some length about the ‘soaring’ number of rocket attacks on Israel since Hamas’s election victory in January 2006, and then (curiously) quotes figures for Israelis killed and wounded by these since 2001. However, she does not quote the figures for the period since January 2006, nor the number of Palestinians killed and injured by Israeli attacks on Gaza during the same period. Had she done so, your readers would have been reminded that these are wildly disproportionate, far in excess even of the overall kill ratio of 3:1 or 4:1 during the second intifada.

Moreover, while blaming Hamas alone for the current state of tension, Fitzsimons completely fails to mention the fact that, since its ‘withdrawal’ from Gaza, Israel has continued to maintain a complete blockade of the territory, preventing its port and airport from operating and for much of the time preventing aid and supplies from reaching its people. Nor of course does she mention the continuing construction of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, despite their illegality and the government’s promise not to allow any more.

This sort of blatantly one-sided approach, presumably meant to provide an advance justification for an Israeli invasion of Gaza, is frankly not the best way of creating a more supportive environment for Israel.

Richard Hoare
East Lavant, West Sussex

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Ian Rippey

March 9th, 2008 2:47pm

Charles Moore, writing in the Spectator some weeks ago (I cannot find it in his column in the Spectator going back to 1st December 2007) laments the fact that the late Auberon Waugh is no longer around to comment on topical matters. Fear not, Mr. Moore, there is an excellent (though rather less waspish) substitute: Peter Marren, whose contribution "Twitcher in the Swamp" appears in the excellent British Wildlife Magazine www.britishwildlife.com (published 6 times annually). For some years I have noticed the similarity of his comments and those of the late Mr. Waugh; indeed I think one or two of Mr. Waugh's expressions have been reproduced verbatim by Mr. Marren. As someone who obviously has more than a passing interest in wildlife (having recently purchased a Moth Trap, and also mentioned the tendency of the Holly Blue butterfly to lay its eggs on Ivy) I feel Mr. Moore would enoy this magazine (perhaps he already has a subscription?). Mr. Marren has also written "Twitching in the Swamp: Droppings from the natural world", published in 2004 by "Swamp Publishing", 122 Derwent Road, Thatcham, RG19 3UP. This 192 page book, with illustrations by David Carstairs, is based on 14 years of Mr. Marren's "musings" in British Wildlife magazine. Mr. Marren has also written a number of other books on Wildlife (notably on Wild Flowers and Wild Life Conservation). I do not own these but hopefully they are as readable as "Twitching Through The Swamp". Ian Rippey Portadown County Armagh Northern Ireland

Diary

Hardeep Singh Kohli

Social networking: surely that has to be a tautology?

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody

Tamzin Lightwater

Tamzin Lightwater's unique take on the week

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

In his speech announcing his Pre-Budget Report, Alistair Darling said that he was going to put up the top rate of income tax to 45 per cent from 2011, because he wanted the burden to be borne by ‘those who have done best out of the growth of the past decade’.

Mind your Language

Dot Wordsworth

‘What?’ said my husband, coherently, thrashing with his stick at a blackboard on the pavement. It said: ‘Quarter chicken with two regular sides, £5.90.’ This was no geometrical chicken.

Letters

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

Politics

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James Forsyth

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