February 24 Letters: Why grammar schools should stay in past

IS David Cameron’s support for creating more grammar schools (Neil McNicholas, The Yorkshire Post, February 20) just a piece of electioneering or is it simply another example of his learning nothing and forgetting nothing, like the Bourbons?

The zombie-like myth of grammar schools creating social mobility keeps awakening in spite of having a stake put through its heart on numerous occasions.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, head of Ofsted, points out that for every grammar school you create, you also create three secondary moderns nearby and nobody wants to talk about the effects of them on the children who “fail” the selection test.

There is a weighty collection of evidence against grammar schools. Three pieces of academic research in current journals show the harmful effects that academic selection in all its forms, including streaming and setting, has on the majority of children’s development.

Their real attraction is for parents who do not want their children to mix with the hoi polloi. In spite of all the protestations, the selection is almost entirely socially-based.

From: David Butcher, Bence Lane, Darton, Barnsley.

JAYNE Dowle’s article about sex education (The Yorkshire Post, February 19), brought back memories of our daughter’s childhood.

She is now in her late thirties, but was about seven years of age when she came home from school one day and asked “Where did I come from”?

We were just about to sit down for dinner, so without hesitation, between mouthfuls of food, my wife proceeded to explain in graphic detail about marriage, love, how babies were created and how they were born.

My daughter, who had listened intently and probably expected the answer Barnsley, brought by a stork, or found under a gooseberry bush, simply banged down her cutlery and said: “Well I don’t believe that!” Perhaps truth is stranger than fiction.

Forces against fanaticism

From: William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.

IT is often said that “we learn from history only that we learn nothing from history”. This may be true of politicians, but I suggest that most British people judge the intervention of the western powers in the Middle East to have been catastrophic.

Dr Edgar Tembo (The Yorkshire Post, February 16) is probably right in supposing that the so-called Islamic State “can only be dislodged through the commitment of significant ground-based military personnel”. Indeed, the western powers have shown themselves particularly adept at “dislodging” terrorists. The aim of defeating Islamic terrorism has nevertheless eluded them.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait and Turkey have the authority, propinquity and collective firepower to defeat IS. They should be encouraged to take on this role. Furthermore, if British Muslims set up an International Brigade to fight IS, this should be supported too.

Religious fanatics are violent, uncompromising and irrational. We must brace ourselves to resist their incursions here at home, putting our faith in democracy and relying on the expertise and devotion of our security forces.

In defence of Labour record

From: Coun Paul Andrews (Independent), Malton Ward, Great Habton, York.

I DO wish Sir Bernard Ingham (The Yorkshire Post, February 18) would stop boring us with running down the Labour Party and their alleged mismanagement of the economy.

I am not a Labour Party member, nor am I a Labour Party supporter, but I do think Labour should be given credit where credit is due.

Yes, the Treasury cupboard was bare when the coalition took office, but what had the money been spent on? Have we all forgotten how Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling had to almost bankrupt the country in order to save the banks?

Shouldn’t we be grateful that Labour was in power then, because, if the money had not been spent, we would have been in a worse depression than the 1930s?

Bearing in mind everything we hear from the Conservatives, it’s quite clear they would never have taken those urgent and decisive steps to save the economy.

Yes, Labour did spend a lot of money on public services. For example, after Malton and Norton suffered the great floods of 2000, John Prescott visited the towns and authorised the flood defences which protect them today. Would a Conservative government have spent that money North of Watford? Never!

From: David H Rhodes, Keble Park North, Bishopthorpe, York.

THE Government’s tool to prevent or reduce the size of ludicrous and offensive bonuses and pay offs to top executives is called taxation. This could start, I would suggest, when the bonuses reach 50 per cent of the individual’s gross pay and then tax it at 50 per cent.

Increases would be implemented when the bonus reaches 60 per cent and that increase would incur tax at 60 per cent, 70 per cent with tax of 70 per cent etc.

All payments, be they in currency and/or shares, would be subject to the new taxation with legislation drafted to prevent loopholes.