Hidden costs of abolishing our private schools

AN ILLUSIONIST could, for example, appear to be building a ‘more cohesive and equal society’ by ‘redistributing’ the assets of private schools, while preventing the spellbound audience from seeing it will cost them in excess of £400million to accommodate the private students in state schools.

Similarly, the loss of hundreds of millions of pounds to the UK economy from overseas students, who come here because our private schools are internationally recognised as the best, slips unnoticed past their gaze.

The benefits to this great country, to vanish if his disastrous act ever makes it on stage, are too numerous to list here. The Labour Party will attempt to obscure them from view by smoke and mirrors, disguising this divisive attack on human rights, in a cloak of so-called ‘fairness’.

Now that’s a very devious trick, and no conjurer has ever performed it before. And they mustn’t be permitted to perform it now! RAYMOND GLASS,

Croydon, Surrey.

Ethics in the bag

GREENPEACE has criticised the use of compostable shopping bags as a ‘false solution’.

We at the Co-op are 100 per cent aligned to providing the most sustainable solutions for grocery shopping today and, in an ideal world, we hope that customers will bring their own shopping bags along to each visit.

But we also have to be realistic in recognising that people are leading increasingly busy lives — requiring more frequent and unexpected shopping trips — meaning they’re not always able to do so.

In the latter scenario we have to ask ourselves three important questions: do we stop them buying goods if they have no bag; stop them buying goods if they can’t fit everything into the bag they’ve brought; or, do we provide a sustainable solution to those unexpected shopping trips? It is our belief that the best and most environmentally sustainable solution to this everyday issue is the compostable bag.

They have a smaller impact on the environment than heavy paper bags and, when used correctly, facilitate the delivery of a food waste recycling system.

MICHAEL FLETCHER, Retail Chief Commercial Officer

Co-op Retail, Manchester.

Sold out

I WAS at Queen’s University Belfast along with Brian Kerr, now Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore, one of the Supreme Court judges who decided that the prorogation of Parliament was illegal.

Along with others we studied advanced constitutional law and his decision is the exact opposite of what he was taught there by Professor Sheridan.

Unfortunately over the years he has joined the establishment.

I wonder whatever happened to the view I heard back then in favour of the abolition of creating new lordships?

The Supreme Court was created by Tony Blair, whom some believe should himself be facing criminal charges for his part in the Iraq War. The Lord Chief Justice of england and the Master of Rolls, the two most sensible active judges in england, were unanimous at an earlier hearing on basically the same point that this was a political decision and the courts could not intervene. C. IRWIN, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim.

Duty to leave

After three years of propaganda and misleading information, we now have to support either our PM who is fighting to uphold the decision of the majority to leave the european Union — or those who wish to remain in a european Union (led by Germany), abiding by their rules, conditions and obligations, such as: an ever-closer union and being part of an EU army. Plus a payment of many billions each year.

If we don’t fully support our PM — by every means possible — to leave the EU on October 31, we’ll have lost our independence and democracy for ever, leaving the fabric of our society in tatters.

The behaviour of our europhiles has been underhand and disgraceful. Anyone following the events of the past three years will surely question why anybody would want to remain under the jurisdiction of such an undemocratic and selfserving regime as the EU. HARVEY CARTER,

Preston, Lancs.

Anit-vaccine folly

IN RESPONSE to recent reports of vaccination uptake, this is my family’s experience. My mother’s youngest sister contracted diphtheria aged eight and, initially, had only mild symptoms so her parents resisted calling a doctor.

They were a poor family with very limited means and medical assistance was expensive in the Pre-nhs days of the 1930s.

This changed when her condition became critical but sadly, by then, it was too late for any successful medical intervention. She died. In the days subsequent to her passing my mother developed similar symptoms and spent 12 weeks recovering in an isolation hospital in South London.

When I was a child growing up in London in the 1950s many vaccinations were not yet available and diseases such as whooping cough, measles and polio caused deaths and lasting physical damage with devastating effects to many children in my community.

Now we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who worked tirelessly to develop vaccines which have protected our children and grandchildren against these dreadful diseases. Denying any child access to them is total folly. JENNIFER BROWN, Wetherby, W. Yorks.

Numbers game

CONGRATULATIONS to Bob howard ( Letters) on daring to mention the biggest threat to the planet today, population explosion.

We constantly look for reasons of climate change, fossil fuels, too many cows, etc, but never consider too many people.

The world population was 3 billion in 1960, doubled to 6 billion by 2000 and today is 7.3 billion. There are signs of the increase slowing down, but the only way to decrease the pollution is to decrease the population.

We in the West constantly strive to increase our GDP and would like to increase our income annually, but increasing wealth only leads to increased pollution as the wealth is spent on more frequent holidays and buying more manufactured goods.

JOHN WHITE, Address supplied.