Universities should be a space free of racism and hatred

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Forensic officers on Further Green Road in Hither Green, London (PA)

Laurels to The Independent for shedding light on the issue of racism that has become more noticeable at British universities.

Universities and colleges are vehicles for knowledge exchange, advancement and innovation. In this globalised world, universities should reinvigorate their abiding commitment to enriching communities in multiple ways through their emphasis on diversity, dynamism, mutual respect, cultural and religious enrichment, and the dignity of difference.

Also, it is time to address the underlying political, societal and environmental drivers that spur the rise of such repugnant menace.

Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob
London NW2​

Arresting a pensioner for defending his home is a disgrace

An innocent householder was arrested for killing an intruder armed with a screwdriver.
 
Two men broke into the home of 78-year-old Richard Osborn-Brooks – what should he have done? Greeted the intruder with a handshake and enquired if he could be of any help?
 
In America the law is quite simple, if a householder kills an intruder he is considered as innocent as a newborn babe. Any intruder is at fault, and if they get hurt well they should not have been there is the first place.
 
Fop the UK to arrest an elderly pensioner for defending his wife and home is nothing short of a disgrace.

Colin Bower
Nottingham

Comparing NHS salaries with those of our MPs is quite a revelation

Given the imminent 70 year anniversary of the NHS, I thought these figures would be of interest. The starting salary for a registered nurse in 2010 was £21,176. Today it’s £21,909, an increase of 3.46 per cent. We train for three years to achieve registration, pay each year to stay on the register and have to provide evidence of continuing professional development.

MPs’ starting salary in 2010 was £65,738, whereas today it’s £77,379 – an increase of 17.7 per cent.

Remember, they also claim expenses for things like the cost of a Remembrance bouquet (Boris Johnson) or eye tests (Jeremy Hunt). They do not train to be an MP – it mostly depends on their social connections. They do not have to prove they are competent to be an MP, although I suppose it probably helps if you’re a pathological liar, and deeply stupid.

R Kimble
Hawksworth, Leeds

Time for Boris Johnson to move on to his next career

The national embarrassment that is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has once again been caught out deliberately lying – this time claiming that an expert at Porton Down had told him that Russia was definitely the source of the novichok nerve agent used in Salisbury (“…they were absolutely categorical and I asked the guy myself, I said, ‘Are you sure?’ And he said, ‘There’s no doubt’…”)

But preceding that, over EU contributions, (“£350m a week”, anyone?) – and before that his ridiculous, little probed but patently absurd claim that the EU wouldn’t allow the recycling of teabags.

Enough is enough: it is now high time to bring his abortive ministerial career to an end. He may have ambitions to lead, but he has never had any intention of representing this country or the interests of its people: he merely represents and promotes himself with a single mindedness and determination that would be enviable were it to be combined with any kind of visionary or altruistic direction.

It’s high time that he went back to being a harmless but entertaining clown on television shows: perhaps he could host Have I Got Untruths For You?

Julian Self
Milton Keynes

It’s possible to criticise Israel – as Jeremy Corbyn has done – without being an antisemite

Two Items in Saturday’s paper may throw some light on the antisemitism row.

Firstly, Patrick Cockburn’s article asks: “With the casualty levels so high, why has Israel avoided condemnation over Gaza?” Secondly, your unnamed letter writer, who is Jewish and is worried about antisemitism, says: “In the past I’ve been a fervent supporter of Israel. I find that impossible now, but do not voice my views anymore because of the reactions of some other Jews.”

There is a real problem with any criticism of Israeli policies and actions being conflated with hatred of Jews as a race. They are two completely different things, and yet now it seems criticism of Israel is subdued for fear of accusations of antisemitism in the true sense.

I maintain that the accusations against Labour, in particular against Jeremy Corbyn, especially in the right-wing tabloids, have been opportunistic, disingenuous and actually downright vicious.

Everyone with a speck of integrity agrees that racist, anti-Jewish views are repellent, but for any newspaper to equate a party led by Jeremy Corbyn with the BNP and the Nazi Party, both of which have been done in the past week, amounts to a display of vitriol seldom seen before against any politician.

It is not good enough to say people who are sceptical about the whole furore are conspiracy theorists – anyone with a brain can see how this matter has been exploited beyond all reason in order to damage Labour and promote the prospects of the Tories, who seem incapable of doing this for themselves without the media weighing in for them at every opportunity.

Penny Little
Oxfordshire