Thursday’s letters: Moral malaise down to lack of discipline and responsibility

Ever since headteachers have been deprived of the optional use of the cane, there has been a lack of discipline in schools. The current parents have never learnt self-discipline and therefore don’t care if their children have none.

The present arrangement for fathers to have paternity leave is a waste, far better to give them time off when the child is 20-24 months; old enough to be taught right from wrong and can learn to respect their father. This is a time when mothers may be coping with a new baby and often give in to toddlers, and toddlers soon learn that two noes will eventually mean “yes” (of course, half of today’s children don’t even know their father or if they have one).

A child going to primary school should respect their teachers and learn to say “thank you” and “sorry”.

One way of preventing prison overcrowding would be to take all the leniency of prison away.

A prisoner would get board and lodging, three meals a day, one hour’s exercise under supervision and all sentences should be carried out in full.

At present, it is worth committing thefts etc to live in a three-star hotel for maybe six months, cut to three months. No heating bills, meals cooked for them, gyms, libraries etc. Any human rights fines imposed should be ignored and even a fine would be cheaper than prison at the taxpayer’s expense.

Young thugs are ready to inflict pain but are frightened of it themselves. If we can’t bring back capital punishment for murderers we should at least bring back the birch.

Our gallant veteran soldiers being made redundant would make ideal prison staff.

From: Nigel Bywater, Airedale Terrace, Morley, Leeds.

THE leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, said that we have a “moral collapse” and that the “broken society” is at the top of his agenda. So, one expects that we will see some drastic changes, or will it be just spin and tinkering at the edges?

At the start of the riots we did have a failure of the police to be able to act and quell the rioters, because of their overwhelming numbers; the police had to take a step back and just watch the rioters get down to it.

In recent years, the parents too, have taken a step back from the parenting of their children. It’s all too easy for parents to avoid responsibility, because the state will do it; whose role is it to provide education, sex education, healthy eating advice, even morals are taught by schools?

Mr Cameron also said he wanted a “family test” applied to all domestic policies.

So the first thing that comes into conflict with is evicting families from social housing.

Wandsworth Council have served a family with an eviction notice for their son’s involvement with the riots, and that is before there has been a conviction, to me that stinks of playing politics with people’s lives.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has said that people convicted of involvement in rioting could lose their benefits, even if they are not jailed.

How disgusting that people claiming benefits are being singled out for harsher sentences, but why would our millionaire Prime Minister care about that? If the sentences need to be tougher, make them tougher for everyone.

Police deserve support of the community

From: Michael McGowan, President, Leeds City Credit Union.

THE wise and welcome words of the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, Sir Norman Bettison (Yorkshire Post, August 12), deserve an urgent and positive response.

Sir Norman could not have been clearer in what he has said. The police service represents the people it serves and is as good as the support it receives from the public.

The answer to the challenges we face is not top down but as always has to come from the community itself. The tragic loss of lives and injuries besides the damage to small and large businesses requires a commitment to cooperative action by the people of the county and support for the police.

In Yorkshire, we have a proud history of co-operative experience in meeting needs through practical self-help including credit unions and an example is Leeds City Credit Union which is active and committed to tackling social exclusion and helping to prevent crime in the city.

The credit union promotes thrift, supports the many who are denied access to credit by high street banks, helps to counter the increasing activities of loan sharks, and works with ex-offenders in Armley prison.

Our patron is Nobel Peace Laureate, John Hume of Northern Ireland, who began his early life in the credit union movement. Leeds City Credit Union is the biggest credit union in the country with more than 25,000 members and we will continue and increase our efforts to work with Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police to help prevent crime, conflict, and discrimination.

The call from the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire for public support for the police deserves a positive response from the whole community.

From: Peter Rushforth, Sutton Drive, Cullingworth.

WHATEVER job I have taken on in my career, I have been expected to do it without outside help.

David Cameron seems to think that our excellent Police Force need outside assistance. They don’t. But maybe our police chiefs should “reciprocate” Mr Cameron and ask Bill Bratton, the former New York police chief, to bring with him a top American politician to help the PM out of his worrying problems.

From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.

AS someone who did my National Service many years ago, I am not entirely sure that bringing back National Service for the yobs and thieves involved in the recent looting is the best option.

Why should the services have to deal with them? Much better to establish hard tough boot camps like many other countries do and really give the offenders something to think about.

Looking at some of the pathetic sentences imposed during the past week should surely make the Government think again.

The Army could have been brought in to assist with stopping the riots but where are they? Anywhere but in this country.

From: Mike Andrews, Cherviot Way, Upper Hopton

IN the wake of the recent riots, our society has been characterised as “sick” and “broken”. These descriptions carry with them the belief that all will be well in the end. After all, the sick can be cured and what is broken can be mended.

Sadly, there is no inevitability or guarantee that such will be the case. History teaches us that societies in the past have risen and flourished only to finally crumble into dust.

Such was the fate of such mighty civilisations as Persia, Greece, Rome and Byzantium. These societies did not succumb to external forces in the first instance. Rather they rotted from the inside through corruption and moral weakness making them susceptible to conquest.

Our recent riots can be seen either as a blip or aberration or a symptom of terminal decline. All people of good will will hope it is the former.

From: Mrs PM Robinson, Brunswick Road, Rotherham.

I READ with interest and some dismay, your riots Editorial headlined “Labour’s legacy” (Yorkshire Post, August 13)

This seems a very hasty conclusion.

Even if you take into account the opinion expressed by many people, professionals included, that the roots of this behaviour is to be found in the home, and is the fault of inadequate parenting, a conclusion with which I would agree, this still far from explains why it is all Labour’s fault.

Ed Milliband admits that Labour got things wrong, and this makes a refreshing change from the usual mantra of “it wasn’t me, guv” and he should be applauded for this.

From: D Harrop, Malton Street, Sheffield.

IN the light of recent events, both the Prime Minister David Cameron and the Home Secretary Theresa May have called for robust policing methods to be used by the police in dealing with rioters.

Very many people, perhaps the great majority, would agree with robust policing, but a crucial follow-up lies in having a judiciary which is prepared to adopt an equally robust approach to its sentencing procedures.

There is a widespread perception of a serious gap between public opinion about what constitutes appropriately robust sentencing and the penalties handed down by the courts and which, in many recorded cases, do not match the seriousness of the case.

From: RH Wilson, Oakwood, Lockington, Driffield.

I READ with interest Tom Howley’s letter (Yorkshire Post, August 15) It was predictable that someone would write a letter blaming Margaret Thatcher for the recent riots and deliberately misquoting her “no such thing as society” comment.

To put this remark in its proper context, she went on to say: “There are individual men and women. There is a living tapestry of men and women and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take on responsibility for ourselves.”

This is different to what Mr Howley would like us to believe. He has conveniently forgotten about the 13 years of Labour government when the economy was mismanaged and our society was completely changed by an open door immigration policy.

Portrait of an artist is little more than gossip

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

I RECENTLY visited the William Etty exhibition in York. The guide delivered a most interesting and illuminating talk. However, when we arrived at Etty’s fine portrait of his friend, the architect John Harper, we were informed that it was “not known if their relationship was sexual”.

I demurred at this, pointing out that where there is no evidence of a homosexual relationship it is safer to assume there is no such relationship.

The guide did not claim any expert knowledge of William Etty, so one may ask where such an extraordinary idea originated. That is not far to seek.

The catalogue produced for the exhibition contains an essay which proposes that William Etty was homosexual and that he specialised in producing paintings which are, in essence, “homoerotic”.

No evidence is advanced for these claims, beyond the essayist’s idiosyncratic views and interpretations. This is scholarship reduced to the level of street-corner gossip.

Visitors to my website will be aware of evidence indicating that Etty had at least one homosexual friend and kept at least one compromising letter.

A godsend, one would think, for those wishing to prove Etty was homosexual and a purveyor of “homoeroticism”. But then, your dedicated fantasist does not care to be sullied with anything so earthy and mundane as fact.