His comparison of armed racist activists with Nazis is not anti-Semitic and there are many Jews and Israelis who see the comparison as perfectly appropriate, not because of the Jewishness of the settlers but because of their yen for colonial conquest, racial supremacy and ethnic cleansing.MARK ELFDagenham, EssexTelecoms battleSir: Your article “Cost of BT stranglehold on telecoms put at £20bn” (15 January), gave a somewhat misleading view of the UK telco sector by carrying the unfounded allegations of one of our competitors.The UK market is thriving as a result of BT’s innovation and investment. Tom Paulin, in his interview with al-Ahram, was equally clear that he was referring to “American-born settlers” living in illegally occupied territory, not Jews generally. Geoff Hoon is not callous or indifferent; he is a human being doing his best, something that people tend to forget about politicians.ROBERT HILLDurhamKilroy and PaulinSir: A standard Zionist line, echoed by Howard Jacobson (Opinion, 17 January), is emerging on the Kilroy-Silk saga that I find profoundly disingenuous.Whilst Robert Kilroy-Silk has tried to muddy the waters over what he actually wrote against Arabs in the Sunday Express, his casual slippage from “limb-amputators” through terrorism to “asylum seekers living happily in this country on social security”, showed clearly that he was referring to Arabs in general; not simply Arab states. The idea that every time a British soldier died in questionable circumstances the Secretary of State for Defence should resign is mad.
If this approach were extended to cover other departments of state, where would it end?I don’t think he should apologise directly to her; an expression of regret at anyone’s death should be sufficient. This is understandable, as are her attempts to find out the full details of his death.However to suggest that Geoff Hoon is directly responsible and should “consider his position” is ridiculous. We are doing just what John Bird says we should be doing – offering unemployed people a hand up not a hand-out.ANDREW SMITH MP Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions, London SW1Not Hoon’s faultSir: Samantha Roberts misses her husband and wishes he were still alive. Through New Deal programmes and other initiatives, we are making clear the responsibility to get back to work whilst ensuring the necessary support is there. Our record speaks for itself, with the lowest unemployment rate for 30 years and youth unemployment virtually eradicated.We are piloting new initiatives like StepUp which give long-term unemployed people a guaranteed job with an employer for up to 50 weeks, breaking the dependency cycle. Nobody unemployed today can choose a “soft” option of staying on benefits indefinitely rather than go to work.The active, modern welfare state the Government has designed links rights to responsibilities and supports the move from welfare to work.
Efforts to sanitise them, as reported in your article “Repackaged after 100 years, Sambo still causes offence” (17 January) reduce the punch of the stories, and redrawing the pictures, intentionally naive, make them difficult for small hands to hold.Those who wish to know more of the background to the books should read Elizabeth Hay’s excellent book Sambo Sahib Parents, buy the books as they were first published Read them to your children before they go to school Explain any problems they may find. They will remember a great and robust set of stories and be strengthened thereby.J P C BANNERMAN Bristol A hand up Sir: Your article on the TV series Shameless implied that today’s welfare system encourages a dependency culture (Opinion, 13 January) This is not true. The books were small and simple and able to be handled by these very young children. They knew nothing of Africa but found India and Scotland tediously everyday places. So the stories contained Africans and employed the African names recognisable by such unsophisticated creatures as my father.The books are now persistently given to older children who have learned to see insult where none was even conceived let alone intended. Thus the abolition of the council tax would result in further increases in property prices; in effect a massive subsidy by the general taxpayer to property owners.The disadvantages of the council tax system would better be overcome by replacing it with a tax on land values, which will more accurately reflect the benefits of location and more directly be linked to the ability to pay.PETER REILLY Southport, Merseyside Original Sambo Sir: When my grandmother Helen Bannerman wrote her Little Black Sambo books they were aimed at her children, who were less than four years old.
