Racism isn’t the only hatred in football: anti-poverty prejudice is also an issue

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Racist chants at football games are disgusting – as are the “songs” sung by (mainly London) clubs when visiting Goodison or Anfield. These consist of “What’s it like to have a job?” and “In my Liverpool slum” and, at this time of the year, “Feed the Scousers, let them know it’s Christmas, too.” The hate that fuels racism is the same that taunts the poor.

Frank Kenny
Liverpool

Food-bank nutrition

Bertrice Langdon (‘As a GP, I know malnutrition is on the rise – and food banks could be contributing to the crisis’) ought to read the recent report from the Trussell Trust entitled “State of Hunger”. This highlights the reasons why so many people in the UK are reliant on food banks and every one of the vouchers mentioned carries data as to why a client is referred for a food parcel.

As a fellow doctor, I would agree that the contents of our food parcels may not be as nutritious as would be optimal. However, the Trussell Trust supports a More Than Food programme that goes beyond food banks themselves, and includes Eat Well Spend Less courses; my own local food bank runs courses with a public health nutritionist on how to make best use of the food parcel.

Dr Campbell Edmondson
Wrexham

Plastic tsunamis

Daphna Nissenbaum’s solution to the gargantuan problem of dealing with waste plastic film is too simplistic. Yes, there is a strong argument for compostable wrapping, as long as there is a countrywide system for collecting it at kerbsides without contaminating other waste streams, and as long as it will rapidly decompose in the average, poorly-maintained domestic compost heap.

But plastic film isn’t the only plastic that can’t be easily recycled at present. We need systems that can cope with everything: used biros, plant pots, broken toys, used washing-up bowls, old VHS tapes. In addition to compostable alternatives, and alongside the important mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle”, investment is required in chemical recycling which can turn waste plastic into new plastic, and in processes for effectively separating different types of waste.

There are encouraging examples of both, but the question is whether their rates of development are rapid enough to halt this tsunami of plastic – a material that is proving more hazardous than nuclear waste – before it is too late. Government knows about these alternatives. The only logical reason I can think for its failure to act is that it will harm the combined interests of the fossil-fuel, plastic-manufacturing and retail industries, whose business models are dependent on our unabated use of plastic.

Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell, Shropshire

Labour left leadership

In yesterday’s Letters, Christopher Claremont-Hughes makes a plea for Labour to eschew Rebecca Long Bailey as leader and choose a centrist candidate.

Jeremy Corbyn may be stepping down, but the values he has brought to the Labour Party won’t be dismissed so easily. Neither Labour members nor the electorate have shown any taste for “Tory-Lite” politics of late. The way forward for Labour has to be to present a socialist alternative once our far-right government’s gloss has worn off.

Paul Halas
Stroud, Gloucestershire

Women warriors

Why did your Women of the Decade did not include the truly extraordinary women of the Kurdish YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), who fought on the front lines to liberate their homeland from the scourge of Isis? What a truly extraordinary omission.

John Tully
Melbourne, Australia