Get the facts straight SIR – David Cameron recently apologised for wrongly accusing Gordon Brown of giving taxpayers’ money to two schools that he alleged had “links with terrorism”.
A few days later, he attacked health and safety legislation as a symptom of the Nanny State, which his party is pledged to remove.
As evidence, he mentioned children being required to wear safety goggles when playing conkers and councils having to remove hanging baskets from lamp standards.
What he appeared not to know was that these apparently damning examples of official idiocy are simply reheated media myths based on long-forgotten single incidents.
The first arose in 2005 when a primary school head – and not the Health and Safety Executive – put what he saw as the safety of his pupils before common sense.
The other was a year earlier when one local authority temporarily removed a few baskets from a few lampposts thought to be too old and worn to support a floral display.
There has been no further apology, but it is to be hoped that behind the scenes, these lapses in the Conservatives’ news management will have taught Mr Cameron that arguments are always more convincing if they are based on fact rather than fantasy.
Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley
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