Labour councillor Awale Olad

• I CONGRATULATE Cllr Awale Olad for his personal speech, (Camden urged to remove investments from weapons companies ‘fuelling assault on Gaza’, November 21).

Our elected local authority representatives do, I believe, have a responsibility to reflect national and international issues in their work and their decision-making, and to speak out about what they themselves believe.

But few people in public office have been speaking out about the terrible situation in Gaza; put off, I suspect, not because they don’t think the situation is terrible but because they are apprehensive that if they do speak out, they will be met with a torrent of abuse.

That is why Cllr Olad’s speech was so welcome: he said what I guess many of his colleagues believe, but don’t speak about in public.

I’d like to congratulate the CNJ as well, for giving his speech such prominent coverage. The media as a whole have not been distinguished in their reporting of the Gaza crisis.

MICHAEL POUNTNEY, WC1