Well stated

Labour MP Douglas Alexander, shadow foreign secretary, made a significant speech in replying to William Hague’s decision to abstain on the United Nations’ vote on Palestinian statehood: “Statehood for the Palestinians is not a gift to be given but a right to be acknowledged.”

Hear, hear to that and to the wider principle of the inviolable right of statehood for nations implied in his ­eloquent statement.

Thom Cross, Carluke