LETTERS

Libya’s ghosts

BORIS JOHNSON has been criticised for suggesting the Libyan city of Sirte might become a new Dubai once ‘ the dead bodies’ are removed. One of those dead bodies is my husband, Victor Charles Prazak.

I have been waiting 25 years for the Libyans to return his body to the UK after the aircraft he was in was shot down by the Gaddafi regime.

On a visit five years ago to the mass grave where his body lies, I heard terrible stories of how the bodies had been treated. Those ghosts will never go away.

How dare the Libyans or MPs take offence while they let this state of affairs continue. Bring back his body and then let’s rebuild Libya.

FELICITY PRAZAK, London SW11. SACKING Boris Johnson would be a huge mistake. Yes, he is prone to the occasional gaffe, but he exudes more patriotism, vision and charisma than the rest of the Cabinet combined.

Further, he expresses the views of Leave voters. If heads are to roll, Theresa May should start with Philip Hammond and Amber Rudd.

CARL HALL, Newmarket, Suffolk. BORIS JOHNSON is as committed to party unity as King Herod was to childminding.

D. W. G. HANNS, Fareham, Hants.

Raise the rate!

WE HAVE widespread overborrowing, the value of private sector pension schemes is collapsing due to rock-bottom bond yields, and years of very low mortgage interest rates have caused house prices to soar, putting home ownership beyond the reach of many.

The obvious answer to all this? Raise the interest rate.

DAVID C. SMITH, Milton Keynes, Bucks.

Airport fiasco

THERE was a rise in easyJet’s share price after its prompt rescue of Monarch customer. I wish it had been as prompt in rescuing its own passengers.

I was due to fly home with easyJet from Madeira last week with my son and daughter-in-law. The airport was in chaos, as high winds had prevented some flights landing.

Jet2, Saga and Tui reps helped their passengers, providing information, food and drink vouchers and taking them to hotels.

There was no contact from easyJet personnel and it was impossible to contact anyone by phone: you were cut off or promised someone would phone back, but no one did.

Eventually, we were told the earliest replacement flight was ten days later to Gatwick or a fortnight later to Manchester! We were told that if we changed our agreed flight, we would have to pay for it ourselves and forgo our right to make a claim.

With help from kind airport staff, I was found a seat on a Thomson flight the following day.

The management of easyJet should hang their heads in shame, but I expect that instead they will be celebrating their rise in profits. CAROL TICKLE, Bolton, Gtr Manchester.

University challenge

AT SECONDARY school in the Fifties and Sixties, it was easy to spot those with the potential to progress beyond O-levels to A-levels and then university.

They were academically intelligent, well above the level of people like me, who left school after O-levels to enter the job market. In those days a university degree opened the door to a well-paid career.

The push for a university option for everyone as a rite of passage means the less academically able end up with a huge debt and a degree that offers them very little reward.

Surely the answer is not to abolish student debt, as Labour proposes, but to restrict university education to the brightest and the best, who will be able to repay their debt.

DAVID SPENCER, Bridge, Kent.

Feeble Forces

AFTER years of cutting our Armed Forces until they couldn’t quell a riot in Mothercare, the Government is drawing up plans for a war with North Korea.

What help can we be when we don’t have enough planes or servicemen for two aircraft carriers?

C. GOODALL, Portsmouth, Hants.

A right to die

AFTER the reports about terminally-ill Noel Conway losing his legal fight over the right to die, I was pleased to read Dr Max Pemberton’s caring article.

It never ceases to amaze me that in a civilised country such as ours, people whose lives have become meaningless cannot be legally assisted to pass away peacefully.

Some claim assisted dying is open to abuse, but a doctor, two psychiatrists and three lawyers deciding if a case is genuine would be a safeguard and end the suffering of people such as Mr Conway. NORMAN WANSTALL,

Burford, Worcs.

Out of court

NO, PRIME Minister, the ball is not in the EU’s court. The Brexit ball is still in your hands. If you want to score with it, repeal the European Communities Act now.

TONY SATCHELL, Bicester, Oxon. THE trouble is that the ball has always been in the EU’s court. ALAN CHARLES SIMPSON,

London E11.

Wandering hands

GOING to the police about a hand being placed on your knee at a party (Mail) is a surprise to sensible women with a sense of proportion and humour. All the lady had to do was put it firmly back on the man’s own knee, without saying a word. It is

unjust that she should be allowed to keep her anonymity once the man was found not guilty of sexual assault. It is an encouragement to bring spurious cases to court.

I wonder who thought that a hand on a knee could be deemed sexual assault? Was it a lawyer who could see the pound signs? Mrs G. ALFORD, Epsom, Surrey.

Words fail me

THAT children do not know the meaning of the words ‘rival’ or ‘parched’, both of which I’m sure I read in Enid Blyton books, is a sad indictment of the state of English language education.

I was astounded that primary academy principal Christine Kemp-Hall said that ‘ archaic words such as “ancestors” would have challenged some secondary school pupils, let alone primary ones’.

Perhaps she needs to make sure her teaching staff are really ‘ challenging’ their students. There have been many reports by universities and employers deploring the lack of sound English language skills, and it seems something in the education system is badly wrong. A reversion to old- fashioned techniques might be beneficial. The answer to a pupil who does not know the meaning of a word should be the one I was given: ‘ Look it up in the dictionary.’ Or is ‘dictionary’ an archaic, challenging word? DAVID PATTERSON,

Aylesbury, Bucks.