This Christmas we cannot remain indifferent to the suffering in Gaza

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

This shouldn’t be about Gaza. It is war of civilisation versus barbarism (AFP/Getty)

I applaud The Independent for depicting the depths of grief and death in Gaza. We are all in mourning for Gaza.

We cannot overlook the gruelling injustice, inequalities, poverty and other grave challenges plaguing humanity. We cannot remain indifferent to the harrowing images of children dead, wounded and buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Gaza. This is a humanitarian tragedy whose cataclysmic health, social and political repercussions are bound to reverberate across the world.

This shouldn’t be about Gaza. It is a war of civilisation versus barbarism.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London

Rotten record

When Rishi Sunak wished everyone a “Merry Christmas” this year, he obviously didn’t include the desperate asylum seekers he is doing his utmost to deport to Rwanda or those asylum-seekers he’s put on the Bibby Stockholm.

Sunak spoke about peace, compassion and hope for a “better world” but, given his rotten record, he obviously didn’t mean that to apply to anyone who isn’t a rich Tory.

Sasha Simic

London

A last gamble

The fact that Rishi Sunak is yet again planning to look after his millionaire friends by scrapping inheritance tax as early as April in time for a May general election is even more living proof of his government looking after the few rather than the many.

This is coming from a man who, as prime minister and as chancellor, oversaw a cost of living crisis after failing to grow the economy from the wreckage left behind by Liz Truss. When will the prime minister ever realise that what we need is a long-term plan for growth that will make working people better off?

Furthermore, how can the prime minister afford tax cuts when the Covid fraud and wasted PPE scandal has itself left a black hole in the public finances of £15.9bn which his own government is not even showing any commitment to recovering?

We need to grow the economy and get money back in the public purse before squandering even more money on what amounts to nothing short of pre-election high-risk gambling!

Geoffrey Brooking

Havant

The game is lost

The game is lost. Simple as!

The entire country knows now that no last-minute Tory gimmicks can gloss over 14 years of chaotic incompetence and dire policy failure.

No, the Tories can talk all they like but the proof is before us, both the country and the electorate are impoverished and broken.

The final point is actually more fatal and Tory-centric for the party itself, in so far as the party is now politically dead. Highly divided, its ministers hopeless, its leaders incompetent and its policies have failed, period. No wonder the country is in an economic abyss.

Dale Hughes

Address Supplied

A stain on our country’s reputation

At last, the public has a reliable account of the disgraceful state of our prisons.  One might hope that when Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, lays out the facts, some politicians might listen. Unfortunately, this is unlikely, as the populist approach to politics by all parties harks back to Michael Howard’s insistence when home secretary that “prison works”.  Well, it does not.

Many people have been campaigning for root and branch reform of the prison system for years, but no one is listening. It is only when someone’s auntie gets done for shoplifting, or goes to prison for not paying her TV licence, that people take an interest in the injustice of the justice system.

The justice secretary Alex Chalk has an impossible task to prevail against the hanging and flogging branch of his own party. And with an approaching election, the Labour Party does not want to be seen as being soft on criminals.

So, we will have to wait a long time before this stain on our country’s reputation is wiped away.

As Charlie Tayor points out, the underlying problems of homelessness, mental illness, the lack of effective rehabilitation, and overuse of incarceration as a first-line punishment for a criminal offence, contribute to the condition of our prisons.

Intelligent housing policies, NHS mental health provision reform, education and skills training for young adults, and changes to sentencing guidelines would help a lot.

So which party should I vote for to make that happen?

Bobbie Vincent-Emery

London