It will require bravery to end cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine

Are politicians too scared to make less immediately popular arguments and actions? (Credits: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

In today’s MetroTalk, a reader has written in, pondering what should be done to end the cycle of violence in Gaza, asserting it starts with braver politicians.

Other topics up for discussion include: post-Brexit, who do the Rejoiners turn to?

The frustrations of the phone queue for a doctor’s appointment, and after making 28 unsuccessful calls to your GP, what do you do if you want to avoid overstretching the NHS?

And whether teachers wearing bodycams in schools would make you and your child feel safer.

Share your thoughts in the comments

The reply from Pedro (MetroTalk, 
Tue) to my letter about it being more fashionable to denigrate British history than say anything good about it, only proves my point.

In reply to my observation that Britain was the first country to outlaw slavery, all he could do was point out that Denmark – in a largely symbolic act – had already done so 15 years before.

There was no mention that it was Britain’s economic, military and diplomatic power that was the main driving force behind abolition the world over.

The Royal Navy lost 1,600 sailors in its West Africa Squadron formed to enforce the ban. Not so with Denmark.

Pedro mentioned that Portugal outlawed slavery on its mainland in 1761, but slavery in Britain was never legal, and Portugal banned participation in the transatlantic slave trade – north of the Equator – only because it was paid by the British to do so in 1814. While Britain banned slavery throughout its empire in 1807, it took Portugal until 1869 to do the same.

And as for the armchair critics of today, who attack Britain’s actions in defence 
of world trade in the Red Sea, Great Britain is damned if it does and damned if it 
does not.

As George Orwell once remarked, there is a certain type of English intellectual who would be less embarrassed stealing from 
a collection tin than saying or doing anything patriotic. David, Durham

Who do the Rejoiners turn to now?

 Well, if people have changed their minds, then so can the government (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Peter Brown (MetroTalk, Tue) quotes YouGov polls that show older Brexit voters are changing their mind.

He is a firm believer in opinion polls when they show what he wants to hear. He conveniently forgets that YouGov predicted the UK would vote to remain in the EU and that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 US election!

The Liberal Democrats are the only ones who want to frogmarch us back into Europe, but their ‘B*****ks To Brexit’ mantra lost them seats and now they’re a monastic cult preaching to the few.

Sir Keir Starmer, who initially tried his best to overturn the referendum result, now states there’s no case for going back into the EU. Whew!

So who do the rejoiners turn to? The Conservatives, in the hope that David Cameron will be the future prime minister and give them another chance?

Or will they whip up a mob on social media like Donald Trump and storm Westminster, waving their EU flags? Robert Kay, Leeds

Should teachers wear bodycams?

Would you feel your children were safer if the teachers had to wear a bodycam? (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

My lovely niece, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, was accused of assault on three pupils at her school.

She got arrested and it took months before the truth came out that they had made it up. S

he had to leave the school and now suffers from depression.


I think all teachers should wear bodycams. Sue, Bromley

I rang my GP 28 times before getting through – no wonder people turn up at A&E instead

What’s your longest wait for a GP appointment? (Credits: Getty Images/Image Source)

On Monday morning, I rang our GP practice to book a telephone appointment with a doctor. This wasn’t an emergency – it was a medical enquiry.

I began ringing at 8am and tried 28 times before I got through. I was given 
a reference number and told someone would return my call.

I repeated this two days running and only then was I called back and booked in for a blood test with the nurse.

I know GPs are busy but I feel this is why people are turning up at A&E, increasing waiting times and overstretching our NHS. Molly Neville, Sheffield

That’s not a UFO, sorry.

A Wizz Air flight attendant believes she captured footage of a UFO while en route to Poland from Luton (Metro, Wed).

It seems obvious to those of us who are not overexcited by strange lights in the sky. The purple lights reflected on the aircraft window are the autofocus infrared LEDs picked up by the camera.

This is not seen by the human eye as it is outside our normal vision range.
Michael Lateo, Avid Metro Reader, Berkshire

Robert talks of fare-dodgers on the bus from Kew Bridge to Ealing Broadway, while Clark says police are too busy accommodating eco-protesters to catch illegal e-scooter riders (MetroTalk, Wed).

With all of these fare-evaders and pesky eco-warriors gluing themselves to the roads, all the more reason to get off the buses and stretch your legs.

I know the area Robert describes pretty well and there are some nice routes.
How about a walk through Gunnersbury Park and then find a suitable watering hole later on for refreshments?

Not a bus ticket or bottle of glue in sight. Simple pleasures. Dec, Essex

On the subject of quitting smoking (MetroTalk, Wed), my father never smoked, and when his minesweeper visited IJmuiden in the Netherlands during World War II, he swapped his 200-cigarette ration for a picture of the ship painted by local artist Haaike Abraham Jaarsma.

As a 14-year-old, I took a puff and thought it was disgusting so never bothered. Bill Martin, Norwich

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Are politicians too scared to make less immediately popular arguments and actions?