Give people the
freedom to fail

YOUR front page story (Yorkshire Post, December 26) on coasting schools which need to improve and “deliver” good education doesn’t mention the freedom of choice we all carry in our heads.

Student Joe doesn’t have to enjoy history, learn to dive, or ask Mary for the next dance – just as Mary doesn’t have to accept. Sometimes freedom of choice is labelled “freedom of will” or “bloody awkward”.

Exactly how do David Cameron’s experts include this option in their strategy, or are serious topics related to human learning not given much debating time in Ofsted’s busy and apparently satisfactory meetings?

Stamp out post
profiteering

From: Mrs Jean Turner, Epworth, North Lincolnshire.

MY local post office sent me a card to let me know that there was a fee to pay for an item of post which they held. The payment due was £1.09. This sum includes £1 handling fee so therefore the undercharge must be 4½p because they double it. This is profiteering.

The same happened last Christmas and I paid up. It was a Christmas card from my local authority for whom I worked for 12 years doing voluntary work. I didn’t bother to tell them. It is likely to be the same this year, so they can keep it. Apparently after one week they return to the sender. I await further correspondence with interest.

Red herring in
hunt for kippers

From: Graham Snowdon, Hallam Grange Croft, Sheffield,

AS a long-time fan of Fortune’s Kippers, I was interested to read Chris Berry’s feature “Bound by kipper ties” (Yorkshire Post Magazine, December 22) . However, should any of your readers feel inspired to visit the smokehouse, I would point out that Henrietta Street is on the north side of Whitby, not the south.