Gaza debate’s implications for democracy

Sir, The unedifying spectacle of the Commons debate raises the question not of how many amendments should have been debated but whether any motion should have been debated at all. Given that the impact of any decision by parliament was always highly unlikely to have any material impact on the ground, and that it was apparent beforehand that the debate would be highly charged and divisive, was it really worth the public embarrassment of a parliament in disarray, the possible loss of a generally well-respected Speaker and, most significantly, a heightened risk of attacks on individual MPs?
Morgan Jamieson
Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

Sir, The Speaker says he took the decision to allow Labour’s amendment “to protect MPs”. Apart from being a fatuous excuse, it is the police’s job to protect MPs, not his.
Sandy Pratt
Storrington, W Sussex

Sir, The SNP was complicit in the chaos that arose in parliament by wording its motion in such a way that any MP voting against it would be vulnerable and concerned for their own safety and that of their family. While we should not allow our democratic representatives to be bullied, one can understand why decisions were made in the name of security. The future of our democracy looks bleak, though, if certain groups can hold our MPs to ransom.
Sandra Rose
London NW3

Sir, If there was ever a moment when parliament should have come together and provided a single, united voice on the horrors of the Middle East, it was on Wednesday — yet MPs chose party politics and a parliamentary charade instead. History will not judge those concerned kindly.
Richard Worsley
Burnham Norton, Norfolk

Sir, The Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, was wrong to select the Labour amendment in the debate and right to admit his mistake and apologise. But to liken him to his predecessor John Bercow, as some Tory MPs did, was unfair. Mr Bercow regularly made politically motivated mistakes but neither admitted them nor apologised.
David Stanley
London SW6

Prince of Politics

Sir, Your leading article (“Political Prince”, Feb 22) questions why the Prince of Wales thought it right to “wade into the political debate” over the conflict in Gaza. He did not. He made a humanitarian plea for an end to the fighting, for aid to get in and for the release of the remaining hostages. As for suggesting that it was wrong to choose to “unburden himself” over Gaza rather than other conflicts with even more grotesque death tolls, what other recent conflicts have resulted in such a huge death toll in such a short time? Far from berating the prince your leading article should be praising him for his humanity. After all, as it says, “the Windsors are human beings”.
Roderick Dadak
Hawkley, Hants

Sir, The act of calling for a ceasefire in no way implies demanding either that one side in a war surrender or that the other should abandon ultimate, pre- and post-bellum aims. A ceasefire means no more than ceasing fire — a point the Prince of Wales seems to understand more clearly than your leading article does. The history of warfare has plenty of examples where a (usually temporary) ceasefire is sustained with no advantage gained by either side.

The flaw in your leading article’s opening paragraph does not, however, invalidate the constitutional points you make about the wisdom of the heir to the throne making the comments that he did. Having watched the abysmal pantomime in the Commons on Wednesday night I can only say that, in this case, fools rushing in has led to a wise man treading into the calm and reasonable space that MPs and democracy seem to have abandoned.
Drew Clode
London N8

Poaching NHS staff

Sir, You report (Feb 22) that British Columbia is trying to recruit our doctors and nurses, using the promise of higher pay. Anyone taking up the offer will certainly need the extra money. The province is in the midst of a prolonged housing crisis at least as bad as our own. It is by far the most expensive part of Canada in which to live. And many British Columbians report spending more than half their incomes on housing. Any healthcare staff considering the move should look before they leap.
James Shillady
London SW15

Safety review of anti-psychotic drug

Sir, Regarding your report “Anti-psychotic drug reviewed after 400 deaths” (Feb 19), I have met Kate Northcott Spall and it is clear she has an important story to tell. We identified areas where the standard of care for people with schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis could be improved and I am confident that her brother’s experiences will help to drive change. Clozapine is the most effective treatment for schizophrenia and other psychoses. However, it is also associated with side effects that can be life-threatening when not monitored effectively, and there have been cases where it has contributed to deaths that could have been prevented.

There also exists longstanding discrimination against people with severe mental illness. Services for them are under-resourced; there is little research around their needs; and they are made to feel ashamed about their condition, so hide it or do not engage in treatment. This can no longer continue. We must create an environment where everyone can thrive and participate in society.
Dr Lade Smith
President, Royal College of Psychiatrists

Museum catwalk

Sir, Victoria Hislop’s suggestion that a catwalk show in the Duveen Galleries at the British Museum is offensive to those who wish to see the return of the Parthenon marbles to Athens is novel but hardly serious (Thunderer, Feb 22). Temporary temperature changes caused by the audience would have been risk-assessed and are unlikely to register compared with the variations the marbles endured atop the Acropolis for about 2,300 years. Hislop’s intervention gives succour to those who wish to see the British Museum diminished when we should be highlighting the richness of the world stories it tells. Returning works of art to their place of origin is a romantic notion but would build few bridges at a time when countries are increasingly turning in on themselves.
Andrew Clegg
Leatherhead, Surrey

Police priorities

Sir, My Range Rover was stolen from outside my house (“Almost 300 car thefts a day unsolved”, Feb 19; letter, Feb 22). On phoning the police I was told that it wasn’t worth them attending as it “was probably in Ireland by now”. A few days later a thief took the Christmas wreath off my front door; the police came within minutes.
Gary Bullard
Richmond, Surrey

California-style assisted suicide

Sir, Liam McArthur’s ability to euphemise the assisted suicide process should not be conflated with it being safe, easy and uncomplicated (“Assisted dying in Scotland: my US trip convinces me I am right”, Scotland edition, Feb 19). His visit to California was to a wealthy state with a very different healthcare system, where their official data shows that 89 per cent of people who had assisted suicide in 2022 were white and that 76 per cent were college-educated — hardly a representative cross-section of society.

The UK’s palliative care system, which is heavily reliant on charity donations, has been accused of being a postcode lottery — and rightly so. For example, in Scotland there are 126 palliative care specialists compared with 129 MSPs, and most of these specialists are opposed to assisted dying being introduced to Scotland, with 43 per cent saying they would resign if their organisation were to participate in assisted suicide, as McArthur is proposing.

If this is what “working as intended” looks like, then why do we want it? Clearly there are gaps in end-of-life care in the UK but to introduce assisted suicide would only exacerbate existing health inequalities.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Professor of palliative medicine; co-chair, all-party parliamentary group on dying well

Wartime plinth

Sir, Further to Steven Berkoff’s suggestion (letter, Feb 22) for the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square, we owe Laurence Olivier much but surely we owe everything to Alan Turing. He is said to have shortened the Second World War by two years — and to have saved us from starvation and surrender.
Hugh Cartwright
London SW20

Life less ordinary

Sir, If Dr Peter Honey’s life (letter, Feb 20) has been as “ordinary” as mine, there is another way to capture the interest of our grandchildren: making a recording in the style of Desert Islands Discs. You start with your childhood and play your favourite pieces of music, interspersed with amusing/interesting anecdotes, showing what music has meant to you in the past while tracing your changing musical taste over the years. Such a project should elicit some less dispiriting questions from Dr Honey’s family — it certainly worked for me.
Richard Wellesley
London SW14

Watery rail lines

Sir, Andrew Luff (letter, Feb 19) suggest applying the names of London’s hidden rivers such as the Fleet to the London Overground. It almost happened. The Jubilee Line was to be called the Fleet Line but was instead named after Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee of 1977.
Owen Skinner
Chalfont St Giles, Bucks

It’s a gas

Sir, We found it was more of a treat to precede the lamplighter rather than accompany him on our way home from school (letter, Feb 20). We enjoyed kicking the lamppost base and watching the glowing mantle burst prematurely into flame.
Alan Millard
Lee-on-the Solent, Hants

North by Northeast

Sir, I wondered why James Marriott singled out Sunderland in his piece “Why the south now just ignores the north” (Feb 22). Reading on revealed that he grew up in Newcastle; presumably, then, a Newcastle United supporter. Rivalry between Newcastle and Sunderland began with the coal trade, carried on in the Civil War and continues today in football. Sunderland deserves a better understanding of its history: its shipyards produced more than a quarter of Britain’s merchant ships in the Second World War. On a cultural level, it is the birthplace of the Venerable Bede and the source of the Codex Amiatinus.
Peter McKenzie
Morpeth, Northumberland

Sir, James Marriott wonders why the south now ignores the north. I suggest he considers the demise of regional ITV as a primary cause: Granada TV in Manchester first brought the Beatles to mass attention in the 1960s, and Tyne Tees TV later became a national showcase for emerging talent through The Tube on Channel 4. Such coverage of emerging talent is now rare in the extreme.
Gillian Reynolds
London W2

Sir, James Marriott makes a compelling case that southerners ignore the north. Just wait until somebody tells them about the existence of the Midlands.
Alexander Titcomb
Nottingham