Thursday's Letters: All children must be taught to show decency and respect

THE recent declaration made by the advisory body The Sutton Trust that the falling standards in the youth of today is a result of them being born into working-class families and that the more wealthy kids fair better is utterly ridiculous.

The truth of the matter is that since the 1970s, both parental teaching and the school curriculum has resulted in each subsequent generation learning less and less about social etiquette and its requirement to enable them to make a decent mark in life.

This began in the schools by teachers allowing pupils to become over familiar and using their Christian names instead of "Sir", also by allowing discipline to become far too relaxed, and also by failing to correct their speech and actions of their pupils during the daytime. The result is that a majority of kids ended up with no respect for authority.

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The lack of social skills was compounded by many parents who themselves had never received the social graces, their own manners inadequate compared to others. Today we have a considerable number of teenagers who leave school without any concept of how to behave in a structured society – unable to interact with their peers, unable to relate to employers, and sadly unable to sustain personal relationships.

A great number of parents fail their children by being unaware of the requirements of society, and that is not their fault – if they are not taught these skills they cannot be aware, and subsequently cannot pass them on to their offspring. For example, how many times do you see children/teenagers unaware of how to behave in churches, funerals, shops and restaurants?

In fact, some children can't even hold a knife and fork correctly. Children race around in supermarkets unchecked, maul the produce, pull things from shelves, and yet fail to be corrected because the parent doesn't know any better. In fact, many times I see parents allowing the child to eat/drink stuff that hasn't even been paid for yet – technically that is theft, and sets a poor example to that child for the future.

I often wonder what happened to those words that most mothers used in the 1960s: "Sit quiet and behave yourself."

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Yet these days some parents fail to see the damage they are doing by allowing their offspring to run riot without control – freedom of expression being the current excuse.

Well, sorry, but it isn't – it's merely allowing that child to be a dammed nuisance to others, and, as that child grows up it will become increasingly hard to handle because of that fact.

Frank Field MP also understands this, and is pressing for social skills to be taught at school, and I think we all ought to support him.

The way a child reacts in society is irrelevant to their parent's financial standing – in fact, I know several wealthy parents whose children are totally out of control. Personally, I came from a humble background, but I was taught to how to behave in public. More than that, I was taught decency and a respect for others, and especially for those in elected authority.

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From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor, East Yorkshire.

PM should say 'no' to votes for criminals

From: Alan Carcas, Cornmill Lane, Liversedge, West Yorkshire.

GIVING prisoners the vote has the potential to gerrymander the election result in constituencies where there is a large prison, especially marginal seats, if the votes are cast in that constituency (Yorkshire Post, November 3).

What is clear is that prisoners should be treated in the way that our armed service voters are, and they should apply to vote in the constituency in which they would normally be resident, and vote by post.

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One of the contentious matters at the last election was that the ballot papers for service voters overseas, especially the troops in Afghanistan, were delayed in the post. Who decided that we should no longer adhere to the principle that ballot papers should not be sent out of the country is another question.

What is fundamentally clear is that the votes of criminals in our prisons should not be treated more sympathetically than those of our fighting forces. To do so would be a total travesty of all that this Government, and indeed the Tory Party, says it stands for. But oh, oh, oh, just for once, could we have a Prime Minister who knows how to say "no" – and means it?

From: Barrie Frost, Watson's Lane, Reighton, Filey.

SO, now the European Court of Human Rights demands that inmates of Britain's prisons must be given a vote at future elections, under threat of imposing massive fines on us for infringing the human rights of prisoners.

The time is long overdue for Britain to withdraw from crazy European legislation on human rights and to place her efforts and money into promoting the human rights of her law-abiding people. The time has come to behave like the democratic country we are so fond of claiming to be rather than obeying the demands of unelected outsiders.

Independent minded

From: D Wood, Thorntree Lane, Goole.

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I DON'T usually agree with much that David Blunkett says, but his call for a Yorkshire parliament (Yorkshire Post, October 28) might have the makings of

an idea.

However, let's not pussyfoot around, we do not want a regional assembly, let's have full independence. Invite the Queen to come and live in York, and form a government of independent MPs – no parties allowed (independents would be far more responsive to their voters' wishes).

We would, of course, withdraw immediately from the EU and stop building silly, expensive and inefficient windmills, dig up our coal and use it to make good, reliable electricity which we can then sell to the rest of the country who rely on windmills.

Give a loan to Forgemasters which would enable them to become world leaders in the production of nuclear components for a growing worldwide demand.

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And, freed of the useless EU and its overbearing red tape, we could then rebuild our manufacturing industries and encourage small firms to start up. They are currently throttled by EU red tape.

What we really need is a British Government, to run Britain for Britain and without foreign interference from the EU.

From: Craig Harrison, Willerby Road, Hull.

FUNNY how David Blunkett now wants more powers for Yorkshire to runs its own affairs. The Labour government promised us a referendum on this very issue and than denied us the vote. I don't remember David Blunkett making a fuss then. Or perhaps he was busy with other things at the time.

Funeral rites and wrongs

From: Peter Dack, Normandy Avenue, Beverley.

HOW do we justify the proposal to award a state funeral to Mrs Thatcher? Only nine commoners have ever been given this honour.

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Awarding such a funeral would class her with the likes of Churchill, Wellington, Darwin, Gladstone and Nelson (Philip Sidney, Lord Palmerston, Field Marshal Roberts, Baron Carson, are the others).

I would rather this honour be given to people who promoted unity in the country rather than dividing it as Mrs Thatcher did – remember the miners and poll tax? Disraeli was offered one but refused!

My nominee would be Dame Vera Lynn, for uniting the country in time of war. Has anyone got a better nominee?

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby,

WHY did you have to have a large picture of Lady Thatcher on your front page (Yorkshire Post, November 2)?

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To many of us, she remains a divisive political figure, responsible for much of what is wrong with Britain today. Indeed, the current furore over housing benefit would not have existed if councils hadn't not only been forced to sell off properties at discount prices, but not allowed to build new homes with the money raised from sales.

Affairs of estate

From: JH Wood-Mitchell, Devonshire Place, Harrogate.

RECENTLY, the Yorkshire Post featured an article to the effect that an executive had been recruited to oversee the commercial aspects of the Harewood Estate. The executive described what a good summer season the estate had enjoyed financially and in terms of public useage and entertainment.

He spoke of extending the event season, eventually becoming year round. Good on him and good for the lovely house and grounds, I say!

The one fly in the ointment is that the only access to the estate is from the A61 Leeds/Harrogate road and the A659 from Wetherby.

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Thus events at Harewood always create considerable traffic jams. Harewood/Harrogate traffic was gridlocked from just past Alwoodley Gates on Sunday, the day of the autumn fayre.

Perhaps the new commercial manager might consider more warning signs of heavy traffic at least two to three miles each side of Harewood? It would give us non-event traffic chance to avoid Harewood and keep our tempers!

Whitby weekend to remember – on land and sea

From: Michelle Catherall, Church Lane, Fylingthorpe, Whitby.

WHILE the Gothic revels were going on in Whitby last weekend, it was my privilege to go out sailing on the beautiful blue yacht that goes whale watching during the season.

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The whales have moved on now but our intrepid and affable skipper is almost certainly guaranteed to find something out there if it moves.

Saturday was a glorious day, blue skies and sunshine, and after a short trip out to sea a few of us regulars "persuaded" the skipper to go out again for longer and we were well rewarded.

We had many sightings of porpoises and went to the seal colony near Ravenscar where there are lots of curious seals ready to oblige with

acrobatics.

We then went up the coast towards Scarborough Castle. As the weather was so beautiful, we cruised around for hours and had sightings on the way back, too.

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On Sunday, the weather was completely different, dull and misty but we went out again and were rewarded by more sightings of porpoises who came in quite close to us.

Whitby has had an amazing weekend with some fantastic Goths on parade and also a display of delightful bull terriers who were also dressed up for the occasion. Whitby is definitely the best resort on the North-East coast.

Jobs equation does not add up

From: Ken Holmes, Cliffe Common, Selby, York.

I ADMIT to not being the brightest spark on this planet, but it is crystal clear to me that our beloved country is no longer the great country it once was.

We are no longer the manufacturing country we were, so how on earth can David Cameron sack thousands of public sector workers, and expect the private sector to provide them with employment? He must think we were all born on the Scilly Isles.

Dark thoughts

From: Robert Dring, Keal Cotes, Spilsby, Lincs.

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AS the broomsticks, masks and other ghoulish paraphernalia of the 280m Hallowe'en industry disappear from the shops, a nagging question is left hanging in the November mist. Why does a nation that zealously protects its youth by applying criminal record checks to "big society" volunteers happily send young people out in the dark, often unsupervised, to knock on strangers' doors to demand "treats" with menaces?

Bright and early

From: F Hewitt, Hunt Fold Drive, Bury, Lancashire.

DR Ian Craig (Yorkshire Post, November 2) has got it wrong in so far as our Church is concerned (St Mary the Virgin, Bury). A team of cleaners known as Dust Busters gather every Friday from 8am to 9am to carry out this task; the average age is well over 70 years. No parental responsibilities here. On the bell ringing front, I only wish the parents would get involved but they never seem to have the spare time.

Doctors' pay

From: Austin Holroyd, Dark Lane, Almondbury, Huddersfield.

I NOTICED (Yorkshire Post, November 2) the Public Accounts Committee's suggestion that family doctors should be offered more money to work in deprived areas. In these hard times, I would have thought that an alternative for members of this worthy but extremely well paid profession would have been to reduce their pay in "well off" areas to encourage them to maintain their present salary levels in these so-called deprived areas. Let's face it, we're all in this together.