LETTERS
of perhaps the finest railway line our
Victorian ancestors ever built.
John Walker
AbingdonAd and subtract
Sir: Paul Burke is right to suggest that
the ad industry has become more
left-wing, and it was interesting to read
that the Vote Leave campaign could not
find a major agency willing to take on its
account (‘Just do it’, 3 August). With the
announcement that the government
intends to spend more than £100 million
on advertising in the run-up to 31 October,
it will be interesting to see if any of them
refuse to take on this account. A principle
isn’t a principle until it costs you money.
Rick Sareen
London NW11The best pollinators
Sir: While wasps perform a very useful
function in our gardens hoovering up pests,
killing them would not deprive the world of
pollinators (Letters, 3 August). Pollination
is the specialisation of honeybees,
bumblebees and solitary bees, which are
all covered in hair to collect and distribute
pollen. At this time of the year wasps are
not the friends of beekeepers, as they try to
enter beehives to steal honey.
Jim Vivian-Griffiths
Master beekeeper, MonmouthAnimal cruelty
Sir: In her piece comparing China and
Britain, Cindy Yu did not mention China’s
gross cruelty to animals (27 July). It has
driven the tiger to near-extinction, not to
mention the rhino. Millions of its people
believe the nonsense that animal parts have
some medical benefit. The latest victims are
donkeys. Millions of them are skinned each
year, their hides boiled down to a jelly for
medicine and face creams. China, unlike the
West, has little respect for animal welfare.
Carol Gibbons
Peacehaven, East SussexA reason to fly
Sir: Mark Palmer’s ‘Notes on... London
City Airport’ (27 July) hit a nerve with
me. Our nearest airport is Dundee. For a
while it was possible to drive 15 miles, park
(for free) and walk to the terminal; next
stop City airport. Today the only flight to
London from Dundee goes to Stansted.
We now travel by train.
Fiona Treffry
Newtyle, AngusWe don’t cut God
Sir: The Revd Dr Peter Mullen suggests
(Letters, 3 August) that Boris Johnson
told him my BBC Great Lives programme
had cut from our broadcast treatment of
Samuel Johnson an extended discussion
of Christianity’s role in Dr Johnson’s life.
Boris J championed Samuel J for our
programme, and your correspondent
has been persuaded that Mr J argued at
length the centrality of religion to the
great lexicographer.
I am fascinated by religion. My
producers would not relegate a person’s
faith where it was claimed as central to
their greatness. I seem to remember Mr J
did say that Dr J’s faith was important to
him, and that does appear to be so, but
this was commonplace at the time, and if
there was anything notable about Samuel
Johnson’s personal beliefs it was his strong
dislike of religiosity and zealotry. I myself
read him as more concerned with morality
than spirituality.
Boris Johnson proved a sparkling,
energetic and erudite champion of his
namesake and this made for a wonderful
discussion; but if he had wished to place
God at the centre of his hero’s life, I cannot
think we would removed Him. More likely
our (now) Prime Minister misremembered,
or your correspondent misunderstood him.
Matthew Parris
Bakewell, Derbyshire
Scotland’s failing schools
Sir: As Toby Young reported (No sacred
cows, 16 July), the Scottish education
system now ranks third among UK nations
and achieves only average performance
in international terms, as measured by the
Pisa programme. The annual Scottish Survey
of Literacy and Numeracy detailed a sharp
decline at all levels in school. The response
of the SNP government to this state of
affairs? To remove Scotland from the Pisa
programme and discontinue the survey.
Compared with England, less than
half the percentage of children from
disadvantaged backgrounds attend
university. This shocking statistic belies
the Scottish government’s professed
commitment to social justice. As the 2015
OECD report ‘Improving Schools in
Scotland’ concludes: ‘It is worse to be poor
in Scotland than in any part of the UK.’
Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence
(CfE) is to blame. It lacks both standards
and sensible assessment strategies. Effective
teaching methods were overthrown for
previously untested methodologies. Well,
they have been tested now! In 2011 the
Scottish inspectorate lost its independence.
It merged into Education Scotland, the
body responsible for CfE. Inspectors no
longer assess school effectiveness but
school compliance; they count the projects,
themes and activities. The last bastion of
high standards has fallen, and the young
people of Scotland are paying the price.
Carole Ford
Former president of School Leaders Scotland,
GlasgowGreat Central memories
Sir: Warm childhood memories of the
thrill of transport by steam train were
reawakened on reading ‘An alternative
route’ (3 August). In the 1950s I travelled
with my parents from Rugby Central
to Oxford by that route to visit my
grandmother. When Beeching closed it
down a decade later, my father stated with
feeling that one day such an act of folly
would be regretted. He should have known,
because he followed that route throughout
the war years every weekend, from his
family home in Oxford to Rugby, where he
was apprenticed as an electrical engineer at
BTH. I sense my father’s warm support for
Ross Clark in championing the reopeningSubscribe for
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