Her approach is to ask young people why they behave in the way they do, and to "get into their heads". Surely parents, teachers and the police have been doing this for years? As a head of year in a secondary school, and having the job of sorting out the more serious discipline problems of my year group, I was always asking the question: "Why?" And the most common answer I received was: "I don't know."

But the answer that was more worrying was the one I got when I pushed the issue further. That answer was: "I don't care." And this is the reason why "education" so often fails when dealing with some young people. For education to work, the assumption is that the young want to be educated. But some don't want to learn, and some are incapable of doing so. And here lies the problem.

It may come as a surprise to some of your readers that sex education, in the guise of Personal and Social Education, was first introduced into our schools more than 30 years ago and has been taught by dedicated and knowledgeable teachers ever since, working with material and using approaches that have steadily improved over time.

But judging from the latest statistics on schoolgirl pregnancies, and now the abortion rates for girls in their early teens, education has, and is, clearly failing. It has also failed regarding smoking among the young, and will fail regarding so-called binge drinking. There is no doubt in my mind that an entirely new and imaginative approach is required, and should include less understanding and less tolerance.


From: Roger M Dobson, Ash Street, Cross Hills, Keighley.

OVER the last 11 years, our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and his predecessor, Tony Blair, have been very active as lap dogs to the President of the United States of America, George W Bush, on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

When is our present Prime Minister going to do something on his own for the good of himself and this country? I mean of course do something for the people of Zimbabwe by sending the SAS in to take out Robert Mugabe.

If we got rid of Mugabe, the world would be a happier, smiling place all round.

Premier qualifications

From: Allan Davies, Heathfield Court, Grimsby.

IN his letter, Mr Barry (Yorkshire Post, June 19), fails to take into account the constitutional requirements a person must fulfil before taking office as Prime Minister.

That person must be an elected member of the House of Commons and must be able to command a majority in the House. Mr Brown satisfies both of these.

Moreover, if Mr Barry looks at PMs from 1945 to the present, he will find that six came into office following a General Election and six when the PM of the day resigned.

The wrong diagnosis

From: J Bottomley, Southfield Close, Wetwang, East Yorkshire.

I WAS dismayed to read of the proposed closure of local doctors' surgeries in favour of centralised medical centres. The hardship this would cause, especially in rural villages, would be immense.

Is this Government staffed by lemmings? They seem to be doing everything they can to alienate the electorate.

Proof for a pay cut

From: P Wray, Bellscroft Avenue, Whiston, Rotherham.

I AM amazed that an uncontested by-election is going to cost £80,000.

David Davis has proved one thing. Today's MPs can live without one month's pay per year.

So instead of a pay rise which they are looking for, Davis has proved they can live with an 8.3 per cent pay cut.


From: Mrs BE Eastwood, Heys Road, Thongsbridge, Holmfirth.
TWO or three weeks ago, I was telling a friend I had just read Kite Runners and she lent me A Thousand Splendid Suns by the same author, Khalid Hosseini.

If Gordon Brown hasn't read it, he should. He would not be sending more troops to Afghanistan but bringing them all home. Les Fincham (Yorkshire Post, June 16), put it very succinctly.

From: Mary Rodley, Thorpe Road, Thornton, Bradford.

WHAT a miserable person Beryl Williams appears to be from her letter (Yorkshire Post, June 19).

I, for one, admire Prince Harry very much, and believe him to be a hard-working and charming young man. I do not grudge him having a laugh with good friends, even if it was at William's expense.

From: T Mason, Wakefield Road, Pontefract.

IT should be made law that anyone wishing to become a MP should first have served at least three years in the military, with at least one of those years spent on active service.

Those unacceptable to the military should have to spend at least three years living and working on community projects, including prisons and hospitals, with at least one of those years spent living and working on third world projects.



From: NR Francis, Atholl Crescent, Doncaster.
OUR Olympic committee now seem resigned and possibly even jubilant that they will be spending £9.5bn minimum of our hard-earned, but easily extracted, cash on the Olympic building programme.

The largest cruise ship ever, The Freedom of the Seas, cost a mere £300m.

The Millau suspension bridge in France, with ground-breaking engineering that produced the world's tallest suspension bridge across one valley, came in at £400m.

The Oresund Bridge linking Denmark and Sweden, which makes our own Channel Tunnel look like a bucket and spade exercise, cost £3.3bn.

Having looked at these achievements, it is apparent that the building of a number of athletic venues for the Olympics cannot possibly cost the sum of £9.5bn.

However, last week the Government announced the cancelling of a plan to build a detention centre outside Bicester, with an estimated build cost of £28m.

Three cheers for good old Great (rip-off) Britain.


From: GA Smith, Carr Lane, Thorner, Leeds.

PLEASE Richard Corbett, stop using the word "democratic" in the same sentence as "EU" (Yorkshire Post, June 20). It's all too obviously an oxymoron, as is the word "reform" which, when used by EU politicians, actually means "more of the same but worse".

No other government in the EU, apart from the Irish, have dared to ask the people for their views. If they had, the Irish "No" would not have been alone. In fact, it is highly likely that there would have been echoes of the Irish raspberry resounding throughout Europe.

As for Mr Corbett's assertion that it would be undemocratic to allow the one (Ireland) to prevail over the many, isn't that just what Gordon Brown has done by denying us the promised referendum? From: D Wood, Thorntree Lane, Goole.

NO sooner had Ireland's "No" vote been announced, then the deceitful and corrupt politicians who run the EU started scheming as to how they could by-pass this democratic act. Then in the Yorkshire Post (June 20), we find Richard Corbett spinning his usual EU myths and deceit.

The EU is obviously a dream for him in a highly paid position with a very fat expense account for doing little or no worthwhile work, except spin his EU propaganda. In reality, the only reason there was only one "No" vote was because the rest of the member states were denied the democratic chance to have their say.

As he and Gordon Brown know full well if they had not reneged on our promised referendum, Britain, too, would have voted "No".

The EU is no dream for the rest of the peoples of Europe, it is a nightmare in the making. It needs to be stopped now, and Mr Corbett's worthless job is a very, very small price to pay for our freedom. Sadly, as all the main parties kowtow to the EU, Mr Corbett can rest easy knowing his worthless job is safe.

From: Frank McManus (vice chairman, West Yorkshire European Constituency Labour Party, 1988-90), Longfield Road, Todmorden.

RICHARD Corbett's article errs in stating that it is just one nation that doesn't like what the dead Lisbon Treaty offered. The Dutch and French people rejected in their referenda the draft EU constitution mirrored in that treaty except by the omission of the inconsequential clauses on flag and anthem.

Our own Government lacked the courage to honour the spirit of its election pledge to provide us with a referendum too. There was no such "democratic deficit" on a central issue during the Attlee and Wilson premierships.

From: Douglas Hartley, Irving Terrace, Clayton, Bradford.

"WHY Europe can't let Ireland ruin the dream..." (Yorkshire Post, June 20).

"Europe" may be a dream to Mr Corbett. It provides him with a job, an income and allowances.

To others, Europe is a nightmare. One instance skipper Richard Brewer, who has farmed the seas from Whitby near 40 years, and his fellow Yorkshire fishermen, now in despair at that proud industry's decline under the prescriptions of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (Yorkshire Post, May 28).

Farmers will agree. According to a note in Country Week (June 14), a sudden push to enforce the Nitrates Directive of 1991 is facing some farmers with huge costs, or difficult changes in practice.

EU rules to cut water pollution from fertilisers and manure are "prescriptive and inflexible" and based on "unclear science" – but the UK must implement them, MPs said. A Commons committee said that there were flaws in the law, but they could see no way of avoiding compliance.

One way would be for a courageous, independent British government to set up – in defiance of the EU – a UK Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries which, brooking no outside interference, would work with representatives of the farming and fishing industries, with the aim of making the best use of our country's abundant natural resources in land and in water.

From: SE Priestley, Hill End Close, Norwood Green, Halifax.

I REFER to the article by Richard Corbett, MEP and his analogy of the 27 diners.

I am sure that your readers will not have overlooked the fact that three of the "diners" have voted against the "restaurant" of Corbett's choice and the other 24 have not had a say in the matter! If the MEP and his ilk had any understanding of, or sympathy with, democracy they would advocate a vote for the remaining 24 nations while accepting that the score to date is three against the treaty/constitution and nil for it.

His whole article brings to mind the advice of Denis Healey: "When in a hole – stop digging." Teenage abortions From: Chris Schorah, Gascoigne Avenue, Barwick in Elmet, Leeds.

ONLY one thing is more predictable than the depressing rise you report in the number of teenage abortions (Yorkshire Post, June 20), and that's the call from government advisors for yet more sex education and contraceptive services to address the issue.

I can't think of a more discredited policy than this one, which year after year achieves the very opposite of what it claims to be trying to do.

In your editorial of the same day, you rightly ask for a more open moral, ethical and religious debate on the issue. But sadly, this is something that the secular minds that control current strategy will not welcome.

Any approach that recommends abstinence, self-control and improved family relationships is confined to the small print as the media, so called celebrities and those who dictate sex education policy, champion freedom of sexual expression in almost any circumstances.

I even suspect that, in our throwaway superficial society, abortions are becoming just one more acceptable alternative for controlling the problem of teenage pregnancy.