Letters: We need to learn languages

Published: 23 December 2005

They don't 'all speak English' - we need to learn languages

Sir: Thomas Matussek is quite right ("German ambassador criticises UK over failings at languages", 13 December). It's not just that people appreciate the courtesy when we make an effort to speak their languages. Britons and Americans glibly say "Everyone speaks English". But, apart from the fact that this is a great exaggeration, they don't speak English among themselves, so we are excluded from their conversation, and most of what they write is published in their own languages, so we have little access to those works, either.

Not so long ago, universities made a second language an entry requirement. If they announced that by, say, 2012 that would be reinstated, schools would have to respond - and our young people could also study in enlightened countries that don't charge crippling tuition fees.

MARTIN WRIGHT

LONDON SW2

Sir: I wholeheartedly welcome plans to return compulsory second languages to the curriculum for 14-16-year-olds. Your report (16 December) said that the reason given for previously omitting them was that compulsion put some pupils off foreign languages for life.

My granddaughter (now aged 16) was not allowed to continue with German post-14 at her English comprehensive, although she had thoroughly enjoyed the subject in years 7 and 8. Apparently this was because she was not in the top stream and had therefore not been given the opportunity to learn French as well; this did not fit in with the school's post-14 policy of studying either both languages or neither.

As her grandfather and I are both Welsh-speaking, have learned French at school in Wales to a high standard and also learned some Spanish later in our spare time, she had an interest in languages from an early age and would have enjoyed doing French as well as German had she been given the opportunity.

What a pity she is not two years older, or two years younger. And what a shame that the English education system these days is ruled by governmental whims and U-turns.

ANITA ROWE

PWLLHELI, GWYNEDD

Our police install the apparatus of tyranny

Sir: George Orwell must be turning in his grave. It seems the entire apparatus for the Big Brother state is now in existence in Britain. Our every journey by car is to be monitored through police cameras that will read car number plates and enable the police to analyse any journey a driver has made over several years (report, 22 December). Britain already has the highest number of CCTV cameras in the world. Face-recognition technology is on its way, meaning individuals' movements will soon be monitored too.

Whilst this is happening our every contact with officialdom throughout our lives will be monitored via the National Identity Register, which lies at the core of the draconian ID cards scheme that is going through Parliament. No other country yet has this range of apparatus to monitor and control their citizens.

And from 1 January 2006 any offence is arrestable under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act - so watch out if you park on double yellow lines and a watching policeman doesn't like the look of you. Most of this has been encouraged by a Labour Prime Minister who worries about the liberty issue of a smoking ban but not the wholesale destruction of the liberty that lies at the core of our democracy. Destroying our liberty will not beat terrorism. One begins to wonder, seriously, whether it's time to leave the country.

TIM WALKER

BRIGHTON

Sir: Not revealed in your coverage of the proposed national vehicle tracking database is how the system will avoid being misled by false number plates. As the London congestion charge cameras have revealed, these are already in widespread use and their popularity will no doubt rocket.

I know that my own car's registration number has been reproduced, having only avoided a fine for driving in a bus lane (in a location where my car has never been) by producing documentary evidence that my wife and I were in South America at the time. Next time I may not be so lucky - will I lose my licence for exceeding the speed of sound if the computer spots my registration number in Aberdeen and Plymouth in the same half hour, or will I be detained if someone using my number is a regular visitor to suspected terrorist hideouts?

Or should I take comfort in the Government's apparent confidence that no serious criminal, and least of all a real terrorist, would stoop so low as to use a false number plate?

COLIN DUNCAN

WALTON-ON-THAMES, SURREY

Sir: I pity all the former "citizens" of Britain. A once great nation has been brought to its knees by irrational fear of criminals and terrorists. You are no longer citizens, you are subjects. You are watched in every public place and now all your travels will be tracked by a shadowy bureaucracy.

It is amusing that many of you criticise the US when our government, by contrast, is relatively transparent; George Bush can't even issue a secret order without the media finding out about it and exposing him. The political firestorm he has been under lately is a direct result of Americans' complete lack of trust in politicians.

We refuse to trust our government. Why do you trust yours? What has happened to Great Britain? It has gone from a nation of warriors to a nation of sheep in the space of a half century.

ROBERT BLANCHETTE

SAINT DAVID, ARIZONA, USA

Sir: It will be very easy to spot the terrorists; they will be the ones with backpacks cycling everywhere.

DAVID COLLINS

KIDDERMINSTER, WORCESTERSHIRE

Help for an adorable disabled child

Sir: Richard Thompson writes of lack of support for disabled children and their families (letter, 16 December). His experience is by no means universal.

Our third child, Sam, is suffering from what is believed to be a mitochondrial disorder. He is extremely small, floppy, fed through a naso-gastric tube, has low vision, and although currently eight months old, will be permanently disabled. We certainly feel angry and despairing at times, but just looking at Sam helps to lift our depression. He is a wonderful little boy, adored by his family and often admired by complete strangers - he has the most beautiful smile imaginable.

We have been offered excellent support by all sorts of organisations to help Sam realise his full potential: specialist metabolic paediatric consultants and nurses in London, acute and community paediatric consultants and nurses locally, dietitians, speech and language, physical and occupational therapists both in London and here in east Kent, as well as a specialist nurse to address his tube-feeding and an expert working with visually impaired children. Sam has permanent open access to the local children's ward, and we have also had invaluable support from Climb, the children's metabolic disease charity, and BDF Newlife, the Birth Defects Foundation, as well as the loan of specialist equipment. We could not have asked for more.

While we are aware that not all parents of children with special needs are by any means as fortunate as we have been, and that even with so much support, things still seem pretty bleak at times, our impression is that attention is far more frequently drawn to the occasions when support is lacking than to the situations when everything is done to help children realise their full potential. Caring for a significantly disabled child is always going to be physically and emotionally demanding, and we do not know what the future holds, but we are extremely grateful for the help and support we are being offered and for our amazing little son.

MARK EGAN

LYSIANNE EGAN

HERNE BAY, KENT

Doubt on badger danger to cattle

Sir: In 1950 it became legally mandatory for farmers to test cattle for tuberculosis. Cattle which failed the tuberculin test were slaughtered. Though "in 1945 some 17 per cent of all cattle in Great Britain were probably infected ... the success of the eradication programme was such that by 1960 it was possible to declare all of Great Britain to be virtually free of bovine tuberculosis" (Inquiry into Bovine Tuberculosis in West Cornwall - MAFF October 1972, 3.1).

This near elimination of TB from Britain's bovines throws up a problem for proponents of a cull who insist that badgers are "a reservoir of infection". In the decade 1950-1960 the nation's cattle herds were increasingly testing clear of TB, without a single badger being killed. (Badgers were not put in the frame till 1971.)

Throughout this period, badgers were living, as badgers have always lived, alongside the cattle with which they came into contact during their nocturnal foraging. But if badgers are the reservoir of TB infection that is claimed today, then they were in the 1950s. The laws of nature don't change to oblige the National Farmers Union. How then could cattle have become "virtually free of bovine tuberculosis"?

The question that should be addressed is not what percentage of badgers in a badger population have TB but now many of those badgers are likely to transmit the disease to cattle in field conditions.

In the mid 1970s, MAFF actually did try to demonstrate that badgers could pass the disease to cattle. The unsavoury and contrived experiments, set up at MAFF's Central Veterinary Laboratory at Weybridge, Surrey, are described in the Veterinary Record for 11 December 1982. Deliberately infected badgers were forced to live cheek by jowl with healthy calves in escape-proof enclosures. Though they should have been dropping like flies from the disease, "calves would regularly exist in the environment for up to five months without acquiring infection" (Again, MAFF's own words). And further: "In the field, the relative risk of cattle acquiring infection from badgers is low."

I wonder how many of those who today call for a mass cull of badgers know about any of the foregoing?

BOB HUDDLESTON

BUDE, CORNWALL

Gay partnerships do help cement society

Sir: I am not sure whether the term "marriage" is a helpful description for same-sex partnerships, either theologically or tactically (and I say this after conversations with several gay/lesbian friends). However even many secular conservatives concede that the legal recognition of civil partnerships will strengthen social stability.

So on what grounds does the Reverend Bernard O'Connor suggest that they are for the sole benefit of the individuals concerned (letter, 22 December)? Why may they not promote the common good?

THE REV KIM FABRICIUS

SWANSEA

Sir: Reverend Bernard O'Connor tells us that "marriage means man, woman, children, even when man or woman dies or departs, even when there are no children".

What about when there is never any prospect of children? It is no more possible for heterosexual newlyweds in their sixties to produce their own offspring, for example, than it is for two men or two women. So can we expect to see the good reverend repudiating second marriages of elderly widows and widowers? No, I thought not.

SIMON EDGE

LONDON SE11

Sir: Why do you print "Mr and Mr Elton John" (headline, 22 December)? Because he is Sir Elton John does this have to mean that David Furnish is subsumed and made invisible by his knightly title?

Why not Mr and Mr Furnish? Or Mr and Mr Furnish-John? Or Mr and Mr John-Furnish? Or even Messrs Furnish and John.

RUTH BARNETT

LONDON NW6

Smoking: a total ban is the only solution

Sir: The latest commentary on passive smoking, this time by a House of Commons select committee, makes it quite clear that passive smoking poses a significant danger to the nation's health (report, 20 December). This Committee also makes it very clear that the partial ban preferred by the Government will not work and will leave many workers as well as large sections of the public unprotected.

We know that at present passive smoking kills over 600 people a year in the UK, including 54 long-term employees of the "hospitality industry". Taking all this evidence into account, isn't it time for the Government, the opposition parties, and all opinion formers, to live up to their responsibility and support a total ban on smoking in licensed premises, restaurants, and other public places where people can be exposed to the dangerous chemicals in tobacco smoke?

BRIAN ABBOTT

CORK, IRELAND

Fantastical crime

Sir: Philip Hensher asserts that one could not imagine a crime novel written in an experimental or extravagant style (Opinion, 21 December). Might I suggest he try The Inflatable Volunteer by Steve Aylett?

KEN BAZLEY

LONDON E11

A plague of boils

Sir: Seeing on TV recently the spectacle of a very spotty youth from Dover, Pennsylvania, arguing for the inclusion of Intelligent Design in his school's science curriculum, I was reminded of a piece of graffiti from some 20 years ago which asked: Can acne be the work of a sane god?

KATHERINE SCHOLFIELD

LONDON W8

Much-maligned trades

Sir: Reading Pandora's column on 22 December, I noticed a derogatory comment about Kate Moss's "Croydon fishwife" accent, whilst, earlier this week, Rolf Harris had referred to an early stage of the Queen's portrait as resembling a "pork butcher from Norwich". What have these places and trades done to be used as a criteria for awfulness and will we now see other examples appearing?

ROBIN OLLINGTON

LONDON SW3

Nameless institutions

Sir: In the interview with Sir Gus O'Donnell (19 December) his education is described as "state schools". Was this his answer to the question or your choice? Did his schools have no name? Would you have simply written "public schools" had he attended more than one fee-paying private secondary school or actually mentioned the name of those institutions?

DAVID EDYE

LONDON SE13

A brace of Santas

Sir: I enjoyed the photograph, A Day in the Life of Santa #2 (20 December). But surely the plural of "Father Christmas" should be "Fathers Christmas".

DAVID RIDGE

LONDON N19