LETTERS

Catching the young

The support from young voters for the extremist leader of a now far-Left party, in spite of his history of sympathy for terrorists, is only partly explained by Corbyn’s disingenuous offer of freebies.

As an academic who spent 11 years in higher education and 12 years teaching in comprehensives, it is obvious to me that there is an even more insidious cause.

From the early Seventies on, many comprehensive schools have increasingly indoctrinated pupils with the nostrums of socialist ideology and have encouraged them to adopt a cynical, if not openly hostile, attitude to this country, its history and its values.

As a Joint Matriculation Board examiner for GCSE english in the eighties, I attended a trial marking session in which the organiser insisted on marking down a candidate’s ( literate and wellwritten) script because of its ‘middleclass attitudes’. The girl had written about the joys of horse riding!

A blatant example is the views trumpeted to children through Young World Books, sponsored by an organisation called Liberation. They produced an anthology of children’s verse (a collaboration with 21 London schools), entitled Our City.

here are just two quotes from these ‘poems’: ‘Mrs Thatcher is a s**t/She really ought to get hit.’ And from another 13- year- old pupil: ‘ The english are the First Class Race/ They lead the world in hatred.’

Such politicisation of pupils fits them well for the world of university education in which Left- wing intellectuals dominate, promoting a sneering attitude towards ‘ high’ culture and an adherence to political correctness.

No wonder Corbynites want to lower the voting age.

Dr Frank Palmer, Twickenham, middlesex.

WITH reference to schools sending out letters to parents to try to influence the General election results (Mail), can you please print a list of all head teachers’ salaries who took part in this disgraceful scheme, then we can see how really badly they are doing, and how much they are actually taking out of the education budget.

MIKE CATTERALL, Accrington, Lancs.

One rule for some?

The £1 billion deal between the DUP and the Conservatives shows that the Tories will cling onto office at literally any cost.

They would rather find money for their friends but neglect national services such as the NHS and housing. Austerity is dispensable when the Tories hit trouble.

MATTHEW DAVIS, southampton.

I THOUGHT the bribery of members of Parliament was an offence.

C. NEWTON, Irthlingborough, Northants.

Oh, HYPOCRISY, thy name is Labour! Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones condemns the deal with the DUP as a £1billion bung.

I don’t remember him condemning Jeremy Corbyn over the £11 billion bung he promised to young voters by his plan to scrap tuition fees.

Or what about all the other bribes to various elements of the electorate that were made by Labour in a desperate bid to steal the election?

At the last count, they came to about £45 billion — with no clue as to how they would be funded.

The £ 1 billion being given to Northern Ireland — and not to the DUP — represents good value for everyone in the UK if it keeps Jeremy Corbyn out of Downing Street and John McDonnell away from the Treasury. The damage this pair could do to the economy is terrifying.

JAYNE ISAAC, Maesteg, Bridgend.

The funds allocated under the Government/ DUP support agreement are not under the Barnett Formula that fairly distributes money to the devolved assemblies.

The SNP could claim additional funds if it would sign a similar agreement to the DUP and support the UK Government.

I am sure in different circumstances the SNP wouldn’t hesitate to sign a similar ‘grubby deal ‘ to support the Labour Party.

ANDREW KERR, Stirling.

GIVEN Jeremy Corbyn’ s ‘connections’ with the IRA, surely it is astoundingly hypocritical of the Government’s opponents to claim a coalition with the DUP would destabilise the peace process in Northern Ireland.

At least we know most of the details of the Government’s dealings with the DUP, which is more than can be said regarding Corbyn’s dealings with the IRA.

PETER DAVEY, Bournemouth.

Speak out on abuse

IN RESPONSE to the reader who thinks that the police should not investigate historical allegations of abuse, I wish I had told someone about the scoutmaster who tried to proposition me.

I was not aware that there was such a thing as a paedophile when he asked me to go into his ‘office’ on the pretext of making me patrol leader. I passed on the opportunity when he asked me to sit on his knee.

Instead of telling anyone I simply left the Scouts. I really wish now that I’d spoken out and seen him brought to justice. Who knows how many boys suffered at his hands because I let him get away with it.

DAVID SYMONS, Skelmersdale, Lancs.

Uniform nonsense

I DON’T know why schools such as Isca Academy in Devon, whose male pupils wore skirts to school in a protest against not being allowed to wear shorts on hot days, still even have uniforms (Mail).

So many school uniforms are ugly and often very expensive for parents these days.

Traditionalists claim they create a sense of unity, but children aren’t stupid and hardly need to wear the same clothes to feel united.

People also defend uniforms by saying that they prevent bullying. But bullying in schools is rarely just about a pupil’s choice of clothing. Bullying is about establishing a pecking order, picking on the less able or more vulnerable and showing off to your peers by making fun of the people who, for whatever reason, aren’t able to fight back.

Another argument is that uniforms look smart, but I notice many teenagers wearing their school clothes go out of their way to look scruffy anyway — wandering around with shirts untucked, ties undone, skirts extra-short.

At my own school (I’m now 82), we didn’t need a uniform to look smart, but were given strict instructions to look presentable. If all schools simply introduced dress codes, most youngsters would look far more dignified in their own clothes.

ERIC CARPENTER, Bath, somerset.

OF COURSE schoolboys should be allowed to wear shorts in hot weather. This will mean they get more vitamin D — which UKIP have told us is so important.

COLIN PRICE, Ilford, Essex.

Air turned blue

The article in Weekend Magazine about 50 years of colour Tv reminded me of an incident in the RCA labora-

tories when the race was on to produce the world’s first working system.

an experiment had been set up to demonstrate the realism of their colour rendition.

In one room was a demonstration TV monitor with a bowl of fruit (a red apple, green grapes, an orange, bright yellow banana, etc) in glorious colour.

This test piece was on a table in front of a colour camera in another room in the building.

RCA executives were justly proud of their achievement and were looking forward to demonstrating the set-up to visiting VIPs the next day.

Came the all-important day and — horror of horrors! There on the screen was the fruit bowl, but the banana was bright blue. Technicians struggled to correct the image with minutes before the vital meeting rapidly ticking away.

when all seemed lost some bright spark went into the room where the fruit bowl actually was and discovered that overnight a practical joker had substituted the yellow banana with one that had been sprayed blue earlier.

JOHN LANGLEY, Newport, isle of Wight.

‘Rage’ wasn’t us

YOU imply that the protest called by the London socialist Party was part of a ‘Day of Rage’ that sought to exploit the Grenfell Tower fire for political ends. This is untrue.

The demonstration had been called on June 11, three days before the fire. Our protest was called to build momen- tum for a movement against the Tory government and against austerity, the consequences of which are writ large by the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.

as far as the political response to Grenfell goes, we would argue that people have every right to be angry and to protest about it. PAUL CALLANAN, London socialist Party, Greenwich.