Letters: The Prime Minister’s D-Day blunder has damaged his election prospects even further

A Palestinian state 

SIR – Before Sir Keir Starmer promises to recognise a Palestinian state (report, June 7), perhaps he should ask the terrorist organisation currently controlling Gaza to confirm that it accepts Israel’s right to exist. There will never be a two-state solution for as long as Hamas denies this right.

Cynthia Bengen
London N3

SIR – Any pledge to recognise a Palestinian state now must ignore the 1933 Montevideo Convention, which requires a state to have four things: a territory, with a permanent population, subject to the control of a government, and the capacity to conduct international relations. 

Arguably Palestine has only the population. Its territorial borders have changed over the years and do not provide for a viable, coherent entity (unless Israel is removed). The Palestinian Authority is ineffective, with governance split between Fatah and Hamas, neither of which provides adequate public services, economic control or social security, despite massive international support. 

Rather than recognising a non-functional state, it would be far better to pledge support for a process – inevitably involving difficult negotiations to change existing boundaries and move people – whereby a viable Palestinian state could eventually be established.

Col Ronnie Bradford (retd)
Vienna, Austria

Slow trains

SIR – When I moved to Sydney I was quite surprised by the double-decker trains (Letters, July 6). They work well, and have a good level of capacity. The problem is that they move so slowly that, if I were younger, it would be faster to run. 

However, I wonder if Britain’s Box Tunnel, say, would be big enough for them.

Guy Robb
Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia 

How to move house with a life’s worth of books

SIR – I understand Ben Lawrence’s pain (“I own too many books, so which titles should I keep?”, Arts, June 6).

Every time I changed jobs, I had to move home. For years, I kept all my books. With novels and decades’ worth of academic tomes, shifting thousands of volumes was ridiculous.

I therefore carried out an agonising cull and introduced “Anne’s Rule of Book”, which states that any book, once read, has to go to others. If it is staying, another book in storage has to go. The rule is mostly inviolable.

Anne Jappie
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – One can never have too many books. The answer to Mr Lawrence’s conundrum is simple: put up more bookshelves.

We have now three fitted libraries, one downstairs and two in former bedrooms. This has the added advantage of reducing one’s ability to accommodate guests.

David Pearson
Haworth, West Yorkshire

Silent heroes

SIR  – My late father, like Lesley Mayo’s (Letters, June 6), was serving in the Royal Marines at the time of D-Day, and volunteered to be in the Landing Craft Obstacle Clearing Units, removing mines and obstructions. 

I found out by pure chance this year through Stephen Fisher, whose book Sword Beach has just been published.

My father never spoke about D-Day. Whether this was because of the secrecy demanded beforehand (Letters, June 6) or his traumatic experience as a 22 year-old, we will never know.

David Dunn
Málaga, Spain

SIR – In June, 80 years ago, I was a 12-year-old schoolboy living in Gloucester. At that time the city was surrounded by barrage balloons to protect Gloster Aircraft Company, which made thousands of Hurricane fighters, and Gloucester Waggon Works, which made tanks.

One night I happened to look at the sky, and was amazed to see masses of twin-engined planes towing gliders, with the moonlight shining on the white stripes of their wings and fuselages. It was only later that I learnt this was the beginning of D-Day.

Gordon Green
Porlock, Somerset

SIR – My father was a carpenter (a reserved occupation) during the Second World War and worked in Portsmouth docks. 

When he was quite old he told me that he and a team were instructed to build a wooden structure, which, he subsequently discovered, was a model of a Mulberry harbour. 

I like to think he played a small but important part in the success of the Normandy landings.

Jeffrey Gregory
Swanage, Dorset

SIR – I was four years old at the time of the D-Day landings. My father was serving on HMS Hilary, a headquarters ship moored off Juno Beach. 

One day, all those on board were given permission to send a telegram to their nearest relative, to say they were well, without revealing any important details. 

Dad was on duty at the time, so could not take the opportunity to send his message to Mum. Instead, he asked an off-duty colleague to send one for him, using one of a series of “safe” messages offered to those who didn’t know what to write. 

Mum was somewhat mystified to be told: “Having a lovely time, wish you were here.”

Rob Upward
Brighton, East Sussex

SIR – At the beginning of the Second World War my stepfather was a bicycle mechanic with aspirations of becoming a decent road-racer. 

Enlisting in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in time to serve in France, he was evacuated from Dunkirk, and was one of a very small number of survivors from the first ship he boarded, which was bombed, burned and sunk. 

Weeks later he was participating in the Western Desert campaign, in the Siege of Tobruk and then El-Alamein, before returning to Britain to assist in preparations for Normandy. He was not demobbed until after the war’s end.

To my mother’s great chagrin, he never even bothered to “send off” for the many campaign medals he was entitled to, never went to reunions or Remembrance Day, and spoke very little about any of it. 

The only things that I, as a child, could drag out of him were that in Tobruk his unit adopted a dog they called “Ere ya!”; that he liked the Australians (subsequently emigrating to their country and dying there); that, if he had a pound for every time he ran away from a Junker Ju 88 plane he would never need to work again; and that on D-Day he drove the first unarmoured vehicle to land in the invasion. He was a specialist in tank recovery, and there were apparently not enough armoured recovery vehicles to go round, so he finished up with an unarmoured one. 

Even his name, Smith, J, was as good as anonymous. 

I am 80 next month and he remains my greatest hero.

Michael Bird
Tavistock, Devon 

Ale origins

SIR – You discuss (Business, June 6) how Madrí Excepcional beer is actually brewed in Yorkshire.

On holiday in Cornwall this week, it seemed appropriate to invest in a case of St Austell Brewery’s Cornish Best, described as “a moreish sessionable ale that’s bursting with character”. The marketing was rounded off with a label featuring Cornish sky, sea and beaches – surely making this drink the perfect sundowner to enjoy while admiring the seascape over Cawsand Bay. 

My enjoyment was a tad diminished, however, when I read the back label, which stated that Cornish Best is actually brewed in Warmley, south Gloucestershire.

Geoff Pringle
Long Sutton, Somerset

¿Qué?

SIR – Years ago, in the company of my brother, who was an excellent linguist, I found myself first down for breakfast at a hotel in Spain, so decided to place our order with my somewhat limited Spanish. All went well until, having recalled that the French word for butter was beurre, I got it into my head that the Spanish equivalent was burro.

After much confusion, my brother arrived and asked why anyone would want bread and donkey, especially so early in the day.

Vincent Hearne
Chinon, Centre-Val de Loire, France

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