No excuses for racing trainer

I WAS surprised to read the comments of Graham Wylie (Yorkshire Post, August 13) following the successful prosecution of Howard Johnson, the racehorse trainer, for showing a “reckless disregard” for racing rules.

One doesn’t need to have an in-depth knowledge of the rules of racing to know that severing a horse’s nervous connections to its lower limbs so it does not feel pain and then continue running it, shows a total disregard for animal welfare. I cannot understand why Graham Wylie should feel sorry for Mr Johnson, perhaps he should have shown greater concern for the welfare of the horses under his trainer’s care. I am a long-time follower and enthusiast of racing but this behaviour does nothing for the reputation of the sport.

Maths doesn’t add up as title

From: Prof Denis Greig, Ancaster View, Leeds.

I AM in the process of setting up a display at the University of Leeds on the representation and combination of numbers from 3,000BC to the present; from the abacus to pocket calculators.

I was therefore very interested in the letter from RS Tipping (Yorkshire Post, August 11) advocating the importance of the word “arithmetic” as compared to the ubiquitous “maths”.

In contrast to the use of numbers, “mathematics” as we now know it is an altogether more recent development. I therefore intend to label the display “5,000 years of arithmetic” as the alternative title put forward by my younger colleagues “5,000 years of maths” is just plain wrong.