PLEASE keep your letters to 250 words maximum giving your name, address and daytime telephone number - even on emails. Email: letters@swindonadvertiser.co.uk. Write: Swindon Advertiser, 100 Victoria Road, Swindon, SN1 3BE. Phone: 01793 501806.

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Tories’ war on schools

DURING the Conservative’s annual beano I have refrained from writing to your paper while the Conservatives have their annual beano. I did not want my thoughts to confuse readers when faced with those of our elected representatives. I need not have worried. Their ill-thought out policies, grandiose announcements and plain silly plans would get a “D minus” on any scheme of marking. Instead, their chums in the press rated the whole thing as something we should all record and view, often. I searched in the papers daily for some Conservative pronouncements supporting comprehensive schools where the vast majority of Swindon’s, and the country’s pupils are educated.

I was disappointed, all I could find was a minute piece hidden away in the inside pages about selective schools.

Head girl Greening announced that £60m was to be allocated to six areas to help children of poor parents. She endorsed this by saying “it would help children get the best start, no matter what their background”.

Odd isn’t it that Tories in Swindon have done their level best to cut such facilities as Sure Start Centres in the town, contradictory to their boss in Whitehall?

With education being high up on the political agenda I would have expected the town’s two Tory MPs to have said something in their weekly column in support of the town’s secondary comprehensive schools.

Again, disappointment as they have kept very quiet.

Every parent would like their children to attend a “good” school as defined by the inspectorate.

Given that not all schools in the town are so rated I would have thought MPs would be behind any moves schools had to improve themselves.

Headmistress May often talks about how selection in schools happens due to house prices.

One way to remove this and allow a level playing field for children’s abilities, irrespective of parental income, is through admissions.

As I understand things, academy schools can set their own admissions policy. So, in a town like Swindon, if all places were pooled then, by lottery, places should be allocated.

This policy would share out resources fairly and parental pressure would drive up the standards in all schools so, eventually, all pupils would attend a good school.

I would have thought that academy schools operate some form of streaming so all have a top set.

It is amazing that one school in the town decides to poach pupils, with the lure of free transport, from other schools. What would be the effect if all the town’s schools adopted this policy?

None of my ideas would be taken up as they do not tick a fundamental box in the Tory card: Division. They believe that competition produces the best results, in all spheres of life. As a bonus to the faithful they will, as they did before when selective schools were the norm, front load such schools, to the detriment of the majority.

As the government is seeking views about education, I wonder if the local Tory council will send a view about the future of the town’s schools.

Up to now neither of the MPs, nor the ruling Tory group on Swindon Council have come out in wholehearted support of the town’s comprehensive schools leaving us to make up our own minds about their views and support.

BOB PIXTON

Liden, Swindon

....

Information gathering

YOUR correspondents Anne Bennett and Mark Webb accuse the government of being xenophobic, which is defined as having a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.

This arises from a speech made by the home secretary and the health secretary in which they indicated employers should collate and publish figures on how many foreign workers they employ.

Predictably this raised howls of protest from the supposed libertine left of the political spectrum.

Yet what in essence is wrong with such a register? We live in a society where ethnic origin, gender, marital status etc, is routinely requested and sometimes even required to be declared.

I remember how in the 80s companies were actively encouraged to indicate how many people of colour they employed, and I recall the discussions I had with Swindon’s Race Equality Team and former councillor David Hulme on this matter.

The gathering of statistics, which I personally find mind numbingly boring, does provide a base from which to hopefully make rational decisions.

I often quote a former lecturer who said, “without facts you are just another loudmouth with an opinion”.

Surely Anne and Mark would agree that debate must be accompanied by accurate facts and that the gathering of information is key to future decision making.

The government is not being xenophobic, rather it is doing what state bodies do – gather information.

If Anne and Mark want to enter into a debate about the State’s obsession with data gathering, that’s another subject altogether. I’m not sure why Mark thinks collating data will incite division and hate crime across the UK. I believe incitement is often encouraged (albeit unintentionally) by those who claim to occupy the moral high ground on such issues.

DES MORGAN

Caraway Drive, Swindon

....

No prosperity for all

THERESA May promised to expose those employers who use virtually only foreign-born employees by publishing lists of the offenders.

It was clearly in the hope of something being done about it.

Opposition arose among both lobbying employers, politicians (company directors?) and, it seems, some naive Adver correspondents – the latter who seem to hold fellow unemployed Brits in contempt judging by their heartless comments.

May caved in. A typical politician’s promise!

The opposition implied that such lists would demonise foreign workers – utter poppycock!

The British working classes are the oldest working class in the industrial world.

They take no nonsense from employers regarding dangerous and low-paid work, unlike foreign-born workers, many of whom willingly undercut British workers.

It’s a known fact that most employers prefer migrant workforces. This was an ideal opportunity to rectify a great wrong.

Little wonder now that many Brits will never get off the dole, missing out on May’s promise of “prosperity for all”.

Had these lists been published, employers would have been democratically accountable to local communities.

It is now the British-born unemployed who are being demonised. They have every right to know the percentage of foreign-born workers here at any time in any company to see if companies are acting fairly. Clearly they are not.

Can you imagine British companies abroad getting away with employing Brits only?

J ADAMS

Bloomsbury

Swindon

....

Shame of UK war record

IT’S 15 years since the “Stop The War” coalition was formed to campaign against what it sees as unjust wars, and 14 years since hundreds packed into venues across Swindon to listen to speakers including Jeremy Corbyn, George Galloway and Lindsey German (now convenor of Stop The War), voice their opposition against the war in Afghanistan and the then impending war in Iraq.

So what has happened in the years since Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded and the then defence secretary Jim Reid said “British soldiers could leave Helmand without a shot being fired”?

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all part of George Bush’s so called War On Terror and he claimed by invading these countries terrorism would end.

Terrorism hasn’t ended, our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have helped create the biggest humanitarian crisis the world has seen.

Many of the refugees we see in Europe are from these two countries, while many others are from Libya and Syria, two other countries the UK has meddled in.

This so-called War On Terror has been an utter disaster as predicted it would be by those speaking at the Stop The War events in Swindon at the time.

Not being content with this country’s military intervention in said countries and being responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and displaced persons, this government since 2010 has approved of 6,000 export licences to some of the most oppressive regimes in the Gulf State region.

Goodness knows what we’ve been complicit in, in those countries. It is time to end our military involvement in foreign lands and stop selling weapons to oppressive regimes.

MARTIN WEBB

Old Town, Swindon

....

We are the majority

MAY I give my best wishes to Steve Thompson for a speedy recovery regarding his health problems?

After suffering a different but similar problem myself I hope and pray that his treatment is successful.

May I add that the only thing we have in common is a love of the natural world? His political views are as similar to mine, as a native American Indian was to General Custer.

However, back to basics. I mentioned some time ago on these pages about the waste of space in multi-storey car parks in Swindon town centre and the problems it would cause. This was out in the excellent letter from Kevin Edmonds.

I think it is time we all used our democratic votes to make the wind of change become a hurricane regarding the present incumbents of Swindon Council.

The electorate must make a stand against their folly and misdemeanours. They need a sharp shock by the ballot box.

If in any doubt, refer to Chameleon Spineless Cameron and his fate due to the common man. Are we not the majority in a democracy?

BILL WILLIAMS

Merlin Way

Covingham

Swindon

....

Join blue plaque bid

RE BARRIE Hudson’s big interview with Noel Beauchamp in Monday’s paper concerning the plaque for Diana Dors.

It is yet another important step for Swindon, this will be the fourth plaque in the town, but we have a long way to go yet.

Marlborough has nine plaques and Oxford nearly 50, but we are on our way.

The reason for this letter is to say that the article was great but did not give the information that anyone wishing to contribute might need.

Should you, like me, feel the desire to be part of this event then you can help by going to www.swindonheritage.com and clicking on Diana’s picture, then where it says Crowdfunder click on contribute here.

You can donate anything from £5 to £50 and know you did your part to put Diana back in the spotlight where she truly belongs, as Swindon’s greatest film star. Fundraising ends on October 31.

Hope to see lots of you at the unveiling, the time and date of which are yet to be fixed.

ROY CARTWRIGHT

Pinnegar Way

Swindon