Letters to the Editor

We have received several unsolicited calls over the last few weeks selling everything from financial services to mobile phones. This is the way I deal with them.

I ask where they are based and nine times out of ten they are in a country many miles away. This is what I say: "There have been many call centres closed down here resulting in hundreds being thrown out of work, therefore I will not speak to any caller ringing from outside the UK - Goodbye."

My little protest will probably do nothing but if enough of us take the same action maybe, just maybe, companies will think twice before going down this route.

We do have an account with the Abbey National, but not for much longer.

L Hall, Beldon Park Avenue, Horton Bank Top.

SIR - May I voice my disgust at Gerry Sutcliffe supporting the people who are objecting to a children's home being built in his constituency. He should hang his head in shame. As a Member of Parliament he needs to get his priorities right.

Who do these self-satisfied people think the are to deny deprived, vulnerable children, through no fault of their own, a home, while they sit in the comfort of theirs, many having their families around them.

Can't they see any further than their four walls? Do they ever stop and think: "There but for the grace of God"?

I was led to believe that we live in a compassionate society. We want to help everyone and anyone.

Oh! I forgot, unless you are a helpless child with no-one to care for her/him. How sad that people can be so selfish!

Maggi Chapman, Sheldrake Avenue, Lower Grange, Bradford.

SIR - I recently spent a wonderful afternoon in the company of delightful, well-behaved, well-mannered and well-educated children who showed me around Green Lane Primary School.

The event was the centenary celebrations of the founding of the school. The hard work done by the children and staff was evident in the truly magnificent displays of past and present education there.

I was particularly proud to see how the school had "moved on" in the three years since I retired as its headteacher and it was very gratifying to meet pupils and staff who still remembered me!

Sarah Walsh's recent article was a good testament to the celebrations but what a pity it failed to mention that there were two previous head teachers at the celebrations.

Mr Alan Wheatley was head teacher from 1972 to 1988 and I took over from 1988 to 2000. We had plenty to talk about when we met up again!

I married one of the school's ex- pupils. My husband, Leslie Reader, attended the school from 1942 to 1946.

I wish the school continued success as it strives to provide the best education for its pupils.

Pamela C Reader, Windhill Old Road, Thackley.

SIR - The British Isles will soon be renamed the Asylum Isles. The casual ease in which people can become invisible in our country, with false papers to get benefits, as revealed in the recent Panorama programme, is the most disgraceful scandal in the history of Great Britain.

Our health service is in tatters as we spend millions on people, not really knowing who they are, who have never put a penny into the pot, while our own people are treated scandalously.

Regardless of political colour, this is the worst government of all time.

Gary Lorriman, North Walk, Long Lane, Harden.

SIR - Oh please! "Education chiefs" have such a cheek attempting to pass off the same old stale orthodoxies on language as new proposals. Schools have been doing these things and more for at least the 15 years since I trained. It's the policy itself that's problematic.

Instead of tilting at windmills, these people could concede, for instance, that the logistics of language support are unworkable; that the market for training mainstream teachers in community languages is pretty much saturated now; and that, meanwhile, the city is failing miserably to meet the demand from Asian women for English language classes.

We need a lot more than a chance to comment. We need an open debate, informed by up-to-date research. David Barnett's article (T&A, July 28) is a welcome beginning.

We need detail about age-groups, methodologies, assessment and curricular structures. Why not - oh heresy! - withdraw 12-year-olds from mainstream classes for a few hours a day for the sort of dedicated language lessons given by trained language teachers that any business person from abroad might expect?

Hey - maybe it's not exclusionist! Enabling children to access society? Maybe it's actually anti-racist!

Isabel Cooke, Hazelhurst Road, Daisy Hill, Bradford

SIR - We hear a lot about how our courts, prisons, police and probation services are out of touch with the general public. But we hear very little about how the public can play an active role in their work.

There are numerous opportunities open to members of the public who want to make a positive contribution to tackling crime in their neighbourhood. These include contributing to a local crime reduction strategy; being a regular visitor to a local prison; helping a victim cope with the effects of crime; mentoring a young person in need; or befriending an ex-prisoner.

With this in mind, the Prison Advice and Care Trust and the Churches' Criminal Justice Forum have produced a free guide to the opportunities for involvement open to members of the general public. The guide is called What Can I Do? How you can get involved in the criminal justice system and has been funded by Rethinking Crime and Punishment.

Any readers who would like a copy of What Can I Do? Can contact the Prison Advice and Care Trust on 020 7582 1313.

Myra Fulford (Prison Advice and Care Trust), Stuart Dew (Churches' Criminal Justice Forum) and Rob Allen (Rethinking Crime and Punishment).

SIR - Mubarik Iqbal's letter "No laughing matter" (July 29) is very touching indeed! I am trying with all my heart to understand just what she is trying to achieve speaking suchrubbish.

Those "Britons" who were captured in Afghanistan most certainly were in the wrong place at the wrong time - or from the British Security position, the right time.

They were fighting against USA/GB forces and therefore should be treated as traitors and receive summary punishment. As far as I can recall, Lord Haw Haw had no criminal record prior to the second world war, but remember what he did and what happened to him.

As for the Bush/Blair Project being "under false pretences," I challenge anyone to find a pinhead in my garden. That is the size of the problem facing the Alliance.

Without a doubt the weapons of mass destruction will be discovered. There is no doubt he had them and there is no evidence to show they are destroyed. If there had been, The Beast would have been only too glad to show the world because he knew the end of the world was nigh in his case.

Phil Boase, Elizabeth Street, Wyke

SIR - Having recently retired from our news agency in Baildon after 20 years, we would like to thank all our customers who together with the staff, contributed to making it such a happy time.

With lots of memories, both happy and sad, all the characters and the kindness helped make each day special, and our lives richer.

Megan and Peter Hope. Threshfield, Baildon.

SIR - As an art student in Hull between 1966 and 1970 I often used to travel on the 'old' Hull to Liverpool Trans-Pennine or Intercity expresses. The trains used to stop at Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Stalybridge between Leeds and Manchester.

This was a much faster route than the line calling at Bradford Exchange, Halifax and Rochdale, among a host of other stations.

The "new" Trans-Pennine express proposals are not so much a snub to Bradford as just history repeating itself.

Ian Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire.