Too negative

I feel that we have become very much more negative in what we think and do. I would hope it wasn’t true and it’s just an impression I have picked up on.

I have read about instances where somebody is always waiting for somebody else to do something. A person complains that there are rats coming to their property, yet the photos show bins overflowing and the area overgrown with domestic rubbish lying about.

We try to put something simple into law, but a three-sentence piece of legislation turns into three pages of derogation and compromises, net value of the legislation, zero. Suspended sentences, community orders, rehabilitation courses. Please tell me where the punishment expectancy is?

Much time seems to be spent by people in positions of authority telling us why something can’t be done instead of just giving it a try or getting on with it.

Columnists Emma Kay tells us in The News that ‘Banning phones in schools is an unrealistic utopia’ (July 7).

I see in the article the words, ‘mental health’ and ‘wellbeing’, and wonder how the I ever survived in school. What is this rubbish about calming those with high anxiety and timers to remind them about medication?

I swear my blood pressure went up a notch or two. Dependency on electronic gizmos is no way to teach the 3Rs, personal responsibility, or any real social interaction. Such total reliance on an object that can become useless in an instant is as pointless as it is dangerous. If it becomes law that phones are to be banned in school, then that is it, no arguments no compromises. In an emergency the school can always be contacted, or messages sent out if need be.

Generation after generation of school children have survived the ordeal without a phone in their hand all the time so why do we now pander to a concept of ‘available at any time and never mind the disruption to others.’

Phones are disruptive and, in many ways, have become a weapon to destroy not create.

When the time comes, put the measures in place, tell everybody what is happening, and just get it done.

B Nevill Gosport