Boycott’s cost

I WONDER why Professor Stephen Hawking doesn’t ponder the out-workings of academic boycotting. Unlike its economic sister, the academic variety is a lose-lose version (your report, 9 May).

Those who do the boycotting will lose out perhaps even more than those who are boycotted. The physics and mathematics expertise of Cambridge lost to Israel will be matched by the Israeli medical and other innovations lost not only to Cambridge but to all of the UK.

Prof Hawking may wish to forego inventions enabling him to overcome his disabilities, but what about countless other needy bodies not given his choice?

Margaret E Salmond

Dunbar Street

Aberdeen