The group of people I used to sit with at Middlesbrough matches (until I gave up my season ticket) had sat together for many years and would not tolerate foul language at all. On the odd occasion when a "stranger" would join them (perhaps using a friend's ticket) and the expletives began, they would be spoken to immediately and told that that sort of language was not acceptable. There was one occasion when the person got up and sat somewhere else, but generally the will of the group was enough and the language stopped.

As a last resort, there are always club stewards and police on duty and shouting obscenities in public is an offence.

Tory cronies bring disaster

From: Geoffrey F Bryant, Queen Street, Barton-on-Humber, North Lincolnshire.

AND yet again we have to read Bernard Ingham's whingeing on about Britain, "a nation going to the dogs" (Yorkshire Post, August 27).

And whose fault is it? You've guessed – wind farm nutters, Gordon Brown, Yorkshire Forward, watchdogs, local government and NHS jobsworths, and of course our anti-middle class educational establishments.

Has he been asleep or has he missed the news over the last year – the biggest disaster our country is facing is that brought about by his Tory cronies in the City who have gambled away this country's financial future.

Now they either still sit in their luxurious offices collecting obscene salaries which every year head further into the stratosphere, or lounge in their foreign tax havens not caring a fig about the ruination they have caused – they've banked their zillions.

As the rich have flown ever higher and the poor have sunk ever lower, Britain has become a fractured society with those at the top not caring about those at the bottom.

The cries of less regulation and lower taxes are pathetic nonsense and would simply make the fracture worse.

Now Bernard, perhaps this basic, all-pervading unfairness in our society might have something to do with the nation going to the dogs and if columnists like yourself spent some time addressing this sort of problem even your distress might be somewhat alleviated.

Allowance for Achilles

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

I MUST take issue with David H Rhodes who suggests that a pass in both English and mathematics at GCSE be a pre-requisite before A-levels be taken (Yorkshire Post, August 27).

I am the proud owner of seven O-levels – by common consent more difficult than the GCSEs that replaced them – yet, despite private tuition which my parents could ill-afford, I was unable to obtain a pass in mathematics.

However, I went on to pass A-level French, English and Latin – there were no grades in those days, just passes and failures.

Thankfully, universities of the 1950s were more lenient than your correspondent: admission to a degree course in any subject required an O-level pass in English and mathematics or any science subject.

But for a wonderful teacher called William Osborn I would not have obtained the pass in physics that enabled me to study French at Nottingham University. By Mr Rhodes's rules, I wouldn't have made the sixth-form.

Yes, something needs to be done about the dumbing-down of school examinations presided over by this government and the very best scholars do tend to be brilliant right across the board. But a system which leaves no room for an Achilles heel cannot be fair.

Rule by the lawyers

From: John R Goodman, Kingtree Avenue, Cottingham, Hull.

IT is a huge disappointment that Gordon "Hash" Brown has become not only Prime Minister but continues as such without any sign of true opposition, either to him, or his ever increasingly ineffectual band of failures.

Surely there is an opposition that can totally discredit someone whose record includes giving our gold reserves away, robbing the pension funds of hundreds of millions of pounds, and doubling the accountants handbook with his devious and complicated taxes.

The attitude of the Government is persecution not persuasion with almost every act appearing to require everyone having to suffer for the misdeeds of the few. An attitude no doubt the result of Parliament being full of lawyers.

Spare the 'heroes'

From: JM Lennard, Whitcliffe Crescent, Ripon.

I WOULD like to request the media to refrain from referring to our Olympians as heroes. To be a hero one has to perform heroic deeds.

Don't get me wrong, the athletes at Beijing did extremely well and deserve praise but running, cycling, swimming and rowing faster than anybody else is not heroic, but does show great dedication and determination.

As for knighthoods for those that achieve more than one gold medal, that is entirely a different question. If a winning athlete is a hero, what will you call a soldier who throws himself on to a grenade in order to save his comrades or another who goes back under fire to try and rescue an injured friend, both knowing the chance of survival to be very small? The risk of injury or death during the Olympics is quite small, although one might pull a hamstring or twist an ankle.