Georgia’s victory over Wales is unsurprising

WHY are people so surprised at Georgia’s victory over Wales?

At the World Cup in 2007, they took Ireland, featuring Paul O’Connell et al, to the wire. Rugby is the national sport in Georgia and the Georgians’ taste for physicality is legendary (one foreign coach stated that a prop forward can be found on every street corner and chidaoba is an ancient form of wrestling that is practised universally in the country).

Rugby union is now more competitive at test level that at any other stage in its history and it is arrogant to assume that Wales will triumph automatically by just rocking up against rapidly developing rugbyplaying nations.

Ian Roblin

Llanishen, Cardiff

Exam system unfair to dyslexic pupils

I WRITE to highlight the weaknesses in the way that formally diagnosed dyslexic students are assessed in their English GCSE examinations. Dyslexic students often have difficulty with their spelling, grammar and sentence structure, as well as in processing information quickly.

At present students are given extra time in examinations, and some can get the help of a scribe (who is not allowed to alter the student’s grammar etc). The examination papers are sent to examiners who are not informed that the student is dyslexic and they are marked “to the same standard” as all the other students, “no leniency in marking is permitted, regardless of the reason” (WJEC).

For dyslexic students extra time is simply not enough to deal with their learning difficulties. Because English is an essential requirement for continuing in higher education and much else, the danger is that bright and creative young pupils who happen to have dyslexia will be lost to the education system. For many, their lives and careers will be blighted as a result. English obviously requires that certain standards should be met, but surely there are other, fairly straightforward, ways of assessing these students, through mainly oral examinations, that would help to overcome this discrimination in the assessment process. Informing examiners that students are dyslexic and giving them some discretion would also be of help.

Education reforms are being planned in Wales but they will not deal with this problem adequately. Perhaps our Education Minister Jeremy Miles, who champions dyslexia, could take a lead on this matter. Emeritus Professor John Baylis Mumbles, Swansea

Is booze necessary to enjoy football?

RECENT reports in the press indicate that many Welsh football fans are incensed by the imposed ban on alcohol at the upcoming World Cup matches in Qatar.

While I do not personally have much sympathy with them, being a lifelong teetotaller, it seems extremely sad to me that so many spectators seemingly need some alcohol-fuelled stimulant to enjoy a football match, rather than watching it for the innate skills of its players and, importantly, the result.

Statistics show that many of the incidents of public order offences are caused by drunkenness and so it will be interesting to see what effect such a ban has on crowd behaviour during the World Cup. Alan Lansdown Rhiwbina, Cardiff

Hypocrisy of felling trees for windfarms

Rugby is the national sport in Georgia and the Georgians’ taste for physicality is legendary

Ian Roblin Llanishen

I DON’T understand the logic of Welsh Minister for Climate Change Julie James in proposing to erect more gigantic wind turbines in upland woodland areas of Wales

First of all , the Welsh Government is telling Welsh people to plant millions of trees to absorb CO2 in the fight against global warming. Yet here is the Welsh Government felling millions of trees to make room for huge wind farms on forestry land owned by the Welsh people, not the Welsh Government. How hypocritical is that?

Furthermore, Welsh Government body NRW has already felled several million trees for wind farms over recent years, right across Wales.

As for the proposed wind turbines, 100 monsters 400ft high with an installed capacity of 2MW each will only generate 25% on average, or a measly 0.5MW per machine. So Julie James is prepared to wreck the natural beauty of Wales and severely damage our crucial tourist economy for a minuscule extra 50MW.

Meanwhile, Wales is overflowing with electricity because Pembroke gas-fired power station generates 2,200MW, far more than the 1,678MW average Wales currently uses.

Even 200 highly visible 2MW monsters up the spine of Wales will still only generate a measly 100MW average, and for England not even Wales. Picture an extra 200 threearmed bandits on our unspoilt rolling hills visible from a 20-mile radius. Why are there none in English border counties?

Of course, these machines will need flashing lights to prevent catastrophes with air ambulances and police and mountain rescue helicopters, thus causing the wholesale guillotining of red kites, peregrines, owls and buzzards from Welsh skies.

Does Julie James have no feeling for the magnificent beauty of wild Wales or care for its wonderful protected bird species, all vital for Welsh tourism?

Why is she so hell-bent on destroying Wales to power energyhungry England, where onshore wind turbines are banned?

LJ Jenkins

Gwbert, Cardigan

Are these ramblings worth the money?

WHY on Earth is anyone willing to pay Boris Johnson £276,000 for a speech after his incoherent ramblings on the subject of Peppa Pig to the CBI?

Why did Rupert Murdoch pay £11,559 to fly him to a business meeting afterwards?

This shows a very unhealthy relationship between our billionaireowned right-wing press and a former Tory PM who so dismally failed to level up.

Margaret Phelps

Penarth

Questions remain over council decision

WHILE all residents welcome the re-evaluation of the decision on the Wyllie Bends and hopefully the installation of metal barriers, the

following questions need to be asked:

1. Why did Caerphilly council cabinet approve in February this year the cost of £350,000 on a metal fence?

2. Why was the material changed to metal via a delegated decision by officers?

3. There should have been proper consultation and engagement with stakeholders.

I am sure the current Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure

will wish to answer as the re-evaluation has taken months of campaigning, march from the village, petition of 124 residents and a detailed motion to council.

Cllr Kevin Etheridge Blackwood

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