LETTERS

A crucial lesson

eDUcaTION, supposedly the key issue for the sNP, rated barely a mention at its conference and now the knives are out for the independent sector (Mail) which could show the Nationalists a thing or two about how to run schools.

Public Finance Minister Kate Forbes has her mind made up. responses to a so-called consultation will merely ‘inform delivery of these reforms’ – in other words, private schools can kiss goodbye to charitable rates relief.

Great news for the class warriors. Less good for children who receive charitable bursaries and for state schools, which can expect more pupils on their books when private schools go to the wall. G. BAXTER, Musselburgh,

East Lothian.

Hopeless cause

HOPe was plastered all over the sNP conference…

Hope no one notices we’re parking the independence push… Hope no one’s read the Growth commission report and realised how dire it is… Hope no one’s listening to Joanna cherry and angus MacNeil trying to sneak around the need for a pesky referendum… Hope we’ve got away with barely mentioning education and oil…

J. KENNEDY, Glasgow. a LIe repeated a thousand times becomes the truth. That seems to be the philosophy of sNP supporters’ endless claims that 100,000 marched in suport of Yes in edinburgh.

The truth is a fraction of that number were out and all Yessers saying ‘We made this one the biggest yet’ achieve is to underscore that they will say anything to boost their doomed cause.

FRANK GILLESPIE, Edinburgh. INDePeNDeNce is inevitable, says Nicola sturgeon.

she can think again if all she can offer is the jobs cuts and tax rises her Growth commission promises, plus a bunch of saltires hanging from bridges. S. HOLT, Aberdeen.

Pie in the sky

THe food fanatics are at it again with calls to reduce the size of pies and pizzas (Mail).

This will achieve nothing because people will eat two small pizzas rather than one large one!

If ingredients are changed, it will be at the expense of taste. This happened to fish and chips. Unless you can find a traditional shop still using beef dripping, most chippies cook with oil more suited to powering heavy goods vehicles.

Obesity will only be cured by education and more opportunities to play sport. a bite-sized Big Mac is not the answer.

PHIL DEAKIN, Worksop, Notts. WHeN they shrink pizzas, pies and ready meals, will they shrink the prices as well?

MARK COHEN, Manchester.

Misguided students

IT worries me that the students of today banning fancy dress costumes are tomorrow’s decision makers. What next? Banning loud shirts or offensive haircuts?

They should enjoy their youth and university experience, as they will spend 40-odd years in employment having to abide by the Pc brigade, which will only get worse.

CHRIS PRITCHETT, Hucknall, Notts. caMBrIDGe University students are protesting about observing a minute’s silence in honour of the fallen of the First World War. I thought this extract from a poem by rudyard Kipling was fitting: JOHN BLACK, Marlborough, Wilts. THe cambridge students who wish to ignore remembrance Day should take a look at the pictures of the First World War soldiers that have been transformed from black and white to colour (Mail).

These heroes who gave their lives fighting for our country were around the same age as the idiotic students. But for them, these pathetic individuals would not have been born.

N. EDWARDS, Clevedon, Somerset.

Sobering thoughts

DesPITe price rises, alcohol sales went up, not down, indicating that minimum unit pricing was useless. so what should have been done?

Take all sales of alcohol out of the supermarkets – they are supposed to be grocery stores.

Limit the hours of off-licence shops; drink only to be sold where people are seated and preferably having food. Make every effort to stop youngsters from starting to drink alcohol before the age of 18 – at least. Use the media to hammer home the damage done to physical and mental health by drink and drugs.

MURIEL THOMPSON, Greenock, Renfrewshire.

No way to treat a hero

I aGree that the honours system is unfair (Letters). My late brother Barry, a royal Navy chief petty officer, led divers into HMs coventry, sunk during the Falklands War, to recover articles and documents of national importance to the UK.

He was awarded the British empire Medal, the very lowest rung on the ladder of awards.

JIM LIMBRICK, Whitfield, Kent.

Car wars

I QUesTION the car driver who claimed trucks flashed past him at more than 60mph at night in roadworks (Letters). This is impossible as all trucks are limited by law to 56mph. Tachographs are calibrated so the speed on the lorry speedometer is 100 per cent correct.

If professional truck drivers sped through roadworks with average speed cameras, they would accumulate enough penalty points in a week to be banned.

This nervous driver is probably travelling at only 40 mph, forcing the lorries to go around him.

I would suggest that if he is terrified in these situations, he should not use the motorways or not drive at all .

JOHN TAYLOR, Ashford, Kent. GOING through the 50mph roadworks between Knutsford and stoke on the M6 is stressful. In a long queue

of traffic, a flatbed lorry came up behind me and all I could see in my rear-view mirror was its brand name.

The lorry driver pulled out and appeared to exceed the speed limit to overtake. I witnessed this quality of driving a few times as he progressed, an accident waiting to happen.

If I had to use this motorway regularly, I’d be a basket case. I hope the speed cameras in these roadworks really work.

A. PRESCOTT, Scarisbrick, Lancs.

Theresa’s next step

IF THE Prime Minister ever appears on Strictly Come Dancing (Letters), she should partner EU negotiator Michel Barnier in a waltz to The Beatles’ Please, Please Me. After her knee-jerk reactions at the Tory party conference, she could give us a display of Knees Up Mother Brown.

And as more of her ministers turn against her, she could perform a solo to Roy Orbison’s Only The Lonely. DAvID HUDDLESTON, Stockport, Cheshire.

Home truths

THE terrorist wife of a British jihadi who has rejected seven council houses (Mail) has been granted legal aid, which has been refused to the families of the Birmingham pub bombings victims.

ABBY ASHBY, Coniston, Cumbria.