Instant Opinion: 'UK politicians have got it wrong on the Israel-Hamas war'

Rishi Sunak shakes hands with Benjamin Netanyahu

(Image credit: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Owen Jones for The Guardian
Debbie Hayton for UnHerd
Bonnie Greer for The New European
Ed Power for the iPaper

published 18 October 2023

UK politicians have got it wrong on the Israel-Hamas war. We must hold them to account

Owen Jones for The Guardian

"What value a Palestinian civilian life?" asks Owen Jones in The Guardian. For Britain's political establishment, the answer is "precious little", he argues. The reluctance of Conservative and Labour MPs to criticise Israel "could make our leaders complicit in war crimes", he writes. "Our failure to hold politicians to account is what allows these horrors to endlessly repeat," he says, and "those who condemn children to perish under rubble should be damned for ever".

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Debbie Hayton thinks that International Pronouns Day is "madness" that "needs to stop". She writes "as a trans person", but "one who has chosen not to also identify as marginalised", she explains for UnHerd. While someone "may be able to influence the choice of word by how they present themselves", they "have no right to control the speech of others", she argues, describing Pronouns Day as one of the modern world's "dubious initiatives".
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"Every monster" is "ultimately an expression of the dark side of the society from which it emerges", writes Bonnie Greer for the New European. Comparing Donald Trump and Jimmy Savile, she says the "two media monsters were formed out of their nation's very proclivities". Because "you never lose in the US if you embody that part of the Dream that deals with riches and glamour", she said, and "you never lose in the UK if you…'make 'em laugh'".

With Liam Gallagher embarking on a solo "Definitely Maybe" nostalgia tour without his brother Noel, Ed Power thinks he can carry it off. We are "going through one of our periodic 90s obsessions", he says in the ipaper, evidenced by the "huge numbers bingeing the David Beckham documentary on Netflix". Oasis are "gone" – but as long as Liam is "standing at the mic, hands behind his back, head arched just so, they will, in a sense, live forever".

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