Policing speech

SIR – As we approach the annual Remembrance events, one can only reflect on where we are as a country when speakers at one of our major universities may be required to be monitored by “safe space marshals” (report, October 27) to avoid “offence” to any members of the audience.

This notion would beggar belief for those who landed on the Normandy beaches, braved the North Atlantic, or were stuck in a sangar in Afghanistan. They might have appreciated a “safe space” in a different sense, but it would not have been a concept about which they had much debate.

Alastair Montgomery

Wemyss Bay, Renfrewshire

SIR – I learn from The Telegraph that some university students request a “trigger warning” in advance in case the contents of a lecture (on Romeo and Juliet, for example) is unsettling.

I teach medical students and natural science undergraduates in Cambridge about infectious diseases, including herpes and gonorrhea. Should I send these students a “trigger warning” in advance of my lectures?

Cambridge Helena Browne