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Friday's Letters: Don't criminalise the parents who really care
OVER the past months, we have read in our newspapers, viewed on television and heard at first hand the way some of our MPs have wrongly and unfairly used the system of expenses for their own gain.
Many of these cases have been fraudulent and in the public sector they would have received legal action, such as a fine or sentences, for their behaviour; the general public would not have got away with a statement such as "I made a mistake, sorry".
How then, can the Children's Secretary, Ed Balls, suggest or even contemplate taking some sort of legal action against the parents who use the system, unfairly I admit, to gain a better education for their children?
As a retired headteacher, I must firstly say that I do not condone the actions of parents who go to unfair lengths to get their children into so-called good schools (Bill Carmichael, Yorkshire Post, November 6).
I fully understand why some parents feel the need to take action to ensure the best education for their children – this type of action, however, only brings the system of admissions into disarray and in the long term may affect the education of many other children.
In view of the scandals of MPs' expenses and rewarding bankers with huge bonuses, we are now faced with Ed Balls wanting to criminalise those parents who want the best for their children. These parents should be applauded for wanting the best for their children. At least they care. Yes, they may have abused the system and broken the rules, but does this make them criminals?
Can someone explain to me what the difference is between broken rules and no legal action for parents breaking the rule, but those in government breaking the rules and no legal action being taken?
It seems to me that there is one rule for MPs and one for others.
What hope is there for the next generation of children and parents?
Parents would not need to work the system if all schools provided what they should – effective education for all.
From: Carol Sellars, Park Road, Conisbrough.
Anglicans lose sense of tradition
From: T Watson, Lime Tree Avenue, Goole, East Yorkshire.
JUST recently I read GP Taylor's article (Yorkshire Post, November 6) with regard to the Church of England and I agree entirely with what he writes.
In my opinion, that is precisely what is happening to the church I have attended all my life.
Until just recently this church, Howden Minster, had a very strong Anglo Catholic tradition with incense every Sunday and also feast and Saints' days.
Everything was going along perfectly until the last interregnum when the PCC of the day decided to stop having incense on Sundays and only on feast days and festivals.
In the church, there are now virtually no places for private prayer because all three chapels have been more or less dismantled.
Howden Minster had a Lady chapel second to none. It was the inspiration of the then vicar of Howden, Canon Charles Patterson, designed by Dr Eric Milner-White, Dean of York.
The chapel was furnished entirely in English oak crafted by Thompsons of Kilburn. It consisted of an altar surrounded by a riddell with four matching candlesticks, plus pews, and also an altar rail and door screen.
However, sadly, all but the altar is left, with all the other furniture strewn over different parts of the church.
All the things I have mentioned have resulted in small congregations, about 20-odd plus, with people going to other churches. I, along with friends which includes an ex-church warden, attend All Saints North Street, York.
To conclude, in my opinion, lack of pastoral care, along with alterations of decades of Anglo Catholic worship, will result in things only getting worse and eventually lead to this magnificent building of Howden Minster closing its doors for good.
Recession recovery
From: Thomas W Jefferson, Wheldon Cottages, Station Road, Hensall, Goole.
I AM surprised that James Bovington (Yorkshire Post, October 4) needs to ask why we are not one of the first countries to emerge from recession.
It is because our economy depends, more than most, on the financial services sector, which has seen a sharp reduction recently. It takes time for this to grow back or be replaced by expansion in other sectors.
Also, our level of personal debt in this country is high and unsustainable. Due to economic uncertainty, people are reducing their
debts, using money that would otherwise have been used to buy goods and
services. This results in less economic activity.
Mr Bovington will welcome the European Commission's forecast that in 2010 and 2011 UK growth will be greater than that of the eurozone.
He may care to ponder that the reason for this is that we have retained our own currency. The pound has, regretfully but necessarily, been able to depreciate against other currencies, thus increasing our ability to compete and, over time, giving us an economic stimulus.
By contrast, the euro is suffering the disadvantages of being a reserve currency. It attracts hot money which causes the currency to be overvalued, by as much as 30 per cent against the dollar according to one commentator. This reduces the eurozone's competitiveness and acts as a drag on its economic growth.
Votes with no justice
From: G Carpenter, Diamond Avenue, South Elmsall, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
The repeated farce of the public voting results for the participants in Strictly Come Dancing only strengthens my belief that the jury system of trials for criminal offences should be abandoned.
I have long believed that the general public, when faced with judging the guilt or innocence of the accused, tend to be ruled by their heart rather than their head, while judges and other professionals are far more capable of weighing up the evidence and arriving at the correct judgment.
In the case of Strictly, this simply results in certain contestants remaining in the competition for a few more weeks than their talent merits, but in the case of criminal trials it results in for more serious consequences.
Whether we like or dislike an individual should have no bearing on our judgment of his or her behaviour. In neither case is it a personality contest.
Proper sentencing will restore respect for courts
From: RC Curry, Adel Grange Close, Leeds.
IAIN Duncan Smith, not unreasonably, points out that prison sentences of less than one month serve no purpose.
Possibly it can take that length of time for the various parties involved to set matters rolling, such are the administrative hoops to be negotiated. Meanwhile, the offenders live in a sort of holiday camp with three good meals a day, television and all mod cons.
There is more to this than making simplistic statements. Interference with sentencing by incompetent government has ruined so many aspects of the justice system, and this is one. It is time to take a deep breath and restore some sense.
For long enough, a short sharp shock of seven to 14 days "inside" was a very effective way of dealing with public anti-social behaviour. Inconvenience of the appearance in court, the loss of pay while locked up and the shame of it all were enough to deter all but the most hardened from doing it again.
Nowadays, it is likely to be dealt with by an anonymous "ticket" with no inconvenience to the loutish offender. Shame has vanished off the face of the earth. Fear of the fear has gone. Those sentenced on a Thursday or Friday are likely to be released on the Saturday.
Longer sentences which should be able to carry some decent rehabilitation work are chopped from the moment the sentence is announced, so two months which could be useful is arbitrarily reduced to one month, which we now hear is ineffective, and so it goes on.
Sentences announced in court should be the sentence served, unless the offender performs well and earns some time off.
What on earth is the point of saying 12 months, when it is immediately decimated for no reason at all, other than to save the Government from building more prisons?
Then the guidelines, which must be obeyed, add further confusion and nonsense to what for many years was an exercise thoughtfully undertaken by magistrates, with a sense of justice and service to the communities in which they lived.
Mr Duncan Smith will need to extend his talent to investigating much further than a debate about what goes on after sentencing if he is to restore the justice system to something which the public can respect.
Some intense discussions with battle-hardened magistrates from around these parts would be a very enlightening process.
From: Roger M Dobson, Ash Street, Cross Hills, Keighley.
I was completely appalled to read a recent newspaper article in which the Tories were calling for short jail sentences to be scrapped.
Have the Tories no idea what happens when a person is sent to prison by a magistrate or judge?
The first few days after they hear the clang of the prison gates is, apparently, the worst time, showing them they have lost their liberty.
Surely David Cameron and his Shadow Home Secretary have the nous to talk to prison staff about this problem before the situation gets out of hand?
Come on you magistrates and judges, carry on giving short sentences and the short, sharp shocks that go with them.
Saviour of the sewing machine
From: Mrs Catherine Watson, Norman Road, Hatfield, Doncaster.
I WAS delighted to read Terry Roelich's letter (Yorkshire Post, November 10) about repairing sewing machines.
During the 1990s, WI members from around the country ran an exchange programme with newly-formed women groups in the town of Tirgu Mures, Transylvania, Romania, organised by WI members in South Yorkshire.
We were running workshops for the deprived Romanian women in various subjects including needlework, patchwork etc and also helping them to organise their own voluntary and charitable groups which had not been allowed under Communist rule.
All the goods for these workshops, including a large number of sewing machines, were donated by people all over this country. Terry Roelich did all the work renovating the machines. We and many of the Romanian women owe him a great debt of gratitude for the work he did.
Let's get tough on alcohol
From: JJ Cain, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
VARIOUS letters referring to the drugs issue (Yorkshire Post, November 5) tended to support the Government policy of hardening its attitude to the use of drugs.
A zero tolerance approach may be needed, starting with the reclassification of cannabis, if we are to send the right message to our young men and women. If this is the Government's real reason (and not to try to elicit a few more votes in the next election), as a lifelong socialist, I wholeheartedly agree.
If they really care about the effects of drugs on society, they should now turn their attention to the damage being done by the abuse of alcohol. Professor Nutt's comment that alcohol has a greater negative effect on our society than the use of cannabis is true.
The ill-conceived relaxation of legislation controlling the sale and consumption of alcohol has equally sent the wrong message to our population.
Sympathy for bin strikers
From: Johnny Rhodes, Glen Road, Baildon, West Yorkshire.
AS an outsider looking in, so to speak, it must be terrible for the residents of Leeds to have a refuse collection strike go on as long as it has. I think that most people will have sympathy with the collectors.
Could anyone in today's financial climate cope with a 6,000-to-3,000 reduction in salary? Impossible.
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