Courts are not classrooms

WE have to feel sorry for the criminals attending Barnsley Magistrates’ Court who now have to address female members of staff as “Ma’am” instead of “love” (Yorkshire Post, October 22).

Who does district Judge John Foster think he is? Headmaster or what? They go to court to be punished, not to be given a lesson on speaking English.

When I had the honour of serving on the bench at Dewsbury for 15 years, it was bad enough to have to be addressed as “Sir” even though I was not a knight of the realm.

Come on Judge Foster, come back into the real world please.

Don’t confuse Britain with US

From: Robert Craig, Priory Road, Weston-super-Mare.

TIM Hunter (Yorkshire Post, October 19) makes the mistake of confusing the American and the British political systems.

If the UK ever became a federation like the USA, the number of politicians needed at Westminster would be many fewer than 600.

An interesting question is where the English National Parliament should be, whether in Nottingham or Leeds?

Song of faze

From: Margaret Claxton, Arden Court, Northallerton.

IT occurs to me that the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral is going the wrong way in trying to get rid of the invaders (Yorkshire Post, October 24).

What he should be doing is creating a “sing-in”, something on the lines of Songs of Praise, with choirs belting out Onward Christian Soldiers until the protesters cried for mercy.

Incidently, they have enough sense not to protest outside a mosque. They’d have been moved on before the second tent went up.

Why so long?

From: Shaun Fortes, Healey Drive, Ossett.

COULD someone tell me why it takes only a matter of months to make thousands of brave military personnel redundant, but to get rid of 50 MPs will take several years of debate and consultation?