Section:GDN 1J PaGe:6 Edition Date:190731 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 30/7/2019 17:37 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian Wednesday 31 July 2019
6 Letters
We live at a time when children
feel besieged by social media,
weighed down by pressure
and report poor mental health.
Collective worship off ers
10 minutes in a day for children
to pause and refl ect on the big
questions such as “ Why am I here?”
and “ How then should I live?”.
Off ering this in the context of
authentic Christian worship is not
“religious indoctrination” but a
chance for children of all faiths and
none to develop spiritually and
gain perspective in an otherwise
stressful day ( Parents launch legal
action over ‘evangelical’ school
assemblies , 29 July).
There is much evidence of the
value of collective worship to
children and young people, which
is why thousands of community
schools also have strong
partnerships with local churches
and faith groups. What happens in
schools must be evidence-basedAlarm at drop in rape
cases brought to court
Give children a chance to refl ect
Your article “ Rebirth of the cool:
Streaming helps jazz reach new
audience ” (29 July) was a welcome
note of optimism. But there are two
caveats. Streaming as a marketing
tool allows jazz to be heard by new
audiences but for the jazz musician
to earn the average wage of £27,600
in 2015 terms, they would have to
have their music streamed 38m
times. But in a world where people
are getting used to cheap or free
music, streaming poses a problem of
endemic proportions for jazz. There
is also a problem for the jazz musician
with the “ value gap”, which is the
disparity between the value that
upload services such as YouTube
takes out from music and the revenue
returned to the music community.
The second caveat is the notion
of the “ product life cycle”, which
helps understand the patterns of
reinvention and renewal in jazz –
where this creativity will lead to in theJazz’s ‘rebirth’ is a
complicated issue
Sausage
celebration
‘Performers
in a parade as
part of Vigan’s
Longg anisa
Festival, an event
celebrating the
town’s famous
(at least in the
Philippines)
garlic sausage.’
Vigan, Ilocos
Sur, Philippines,
January 2017
MARK JACOBS/
GUARDIAN COMMUNITY
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best ones hereWe can’t leave it like this. Your
investigation shows that right now
there is virtual impunity for rape, and
the men who commit rape know this.
Sarah Green Director, End Violence
Against Women Coalition , Harriet
Wistrich Director, Centre for
Women’s Justice , Dr C Quinn
CEO, Rape Crisis England & Wales- It is shocking that after decades of
campaigning by women and repeated
offi cial claims that scandals like
Savile, Worboys and Rotherham are
things of the past, we learn that rape
charging has collapsed even further.
It is not because victims don’t come
forward. There is “ a sharp rise in
reports of rape made to police ... from
2015 to 2019, the number of rape
claims ... rose by 61%, from 35,847
to 57,882”. Two women a week,
many of them mothers, are killed
by partners or ex-partners – usually
after reporting multiple assaults and
threats which go unheeded by police.
How much does the latest drop in
charging have to do with the abolition
of specialist rape investigation
units and “digital strip search”?
We and many others, including the
information commissioner and
victims commissioner, objected to
this indiscriminate download of
victims’ social media. Big Brother
Watch claims the police powers used
against victims are more extensive
than those used against crime
suspects; lawyers question whether
they are even legal.
Cristel Amiss Black Women’s Rape
Action Project , Lisa Longstaff
Women Against Rape- I was a pupil at a church school up
to age 11 , and religion played a part
in morning assembly at the school
I went to up to age 16. Those whose
parents objected just sat outside and
read until it was time to go to class.
I don’t remember ever believing
the stories we were told. But more
than 50 years later I did commit
to becoming a Christian and have
never regretted it.
Graham Hart
Halesowen, West Midlands - Religious indoctrination in
schools may not always achieve the
intended results. Back in my 1960 s
school days a classmate ach ieved a
grade 1 in GCE scripture. He proudly
boasted that he “didn’t believe a
word of it”. It is signifi cant that
church attendance in the UK, with
a daily act of religious worship in
schools, is far lower than in the
US, where prayer in public schools
is banned. Perhaps proselytising
atheists should campaign for more
prayers in schools, not less.
Roger Backhouse
York
- I was a pupil at a church school up
Your front-page report ( Revealed:
collapse in rape cases that end up
in court , 27 July) was truly shocking
and leads us to ask whether rape
has eff ectively been decriminalised.
Justice system leaders, including
those at the top of the police,
prosecution service and courts,
must be pressed on your revelation
that only one in every 65 rapes
reported to the police now ends
up in court. If they were school or
hospital leaders they would surely
be put into special measures and
new management brought in.
The government is already
running a review into what is going
wrong with investigating and
prosecuting this crime. We hope this
is at the top of the new ministers’
in-trays and that radical changes are
considered. For example, we need
special advocates for every victim
who reports, a stricter ban on “sexual
history evidence” fi t for the digital
age, proactive police and prosecutor
action plans to improve justice
outcomes, and a willingness to look
at whether special interventions
with juries in rape cases are needed.and should not be in response to
secular pressure group campaigns.
Rev Nigel Genders
Chief education offi cer, C of E- “Collective” worship in schools
should be quite diff erent from
“corporate” worship in church.
Corporate worship assumes a body
of like-minded worshipers while
collective worship does not and is
intended to be broad and inclusive
of those who are religious and
secular. Faith communities (the local
church in this case) make important
contributions to assemblies but need
to be briefed against proselyti sing.
It is a pity that Lee and Lizanne
Harris feel the need to withdraw their
children from assemblies because
they are of immense value and it is
healthy for children to encounter
diff erent viewpoints.
Christine Crossley
Religious studies teacher and assembly
leader, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire- Anyone working in the criminal
justice fi eld will not have been
surprised by the fi gures showing one
in 65 rape cases reported to police
result in subjects being summonsed
or charged. These fi gures are partly
as a result of misconstrued policies
that leave the police inadequate time
to investigate rape cases properly.
In the area I practi se in it is police
policy to arrest anyone accused of
domestic violence, irrespective of
whether there is a complainant.
In practice this means police attend
and are told by the alleged victim
that they do not wish to pursue a
complaint. Rather than this being
the end of the matter it is the start of
a lengthy process where the alleged
perpetrator is arrested and detained
in a cell whil e police attempt
unsuccessfully to gather evidence.
The suspect is then interviewed and
CPS advice sought, in circumstances
where there was never any prospect
of a charge. Ultimately the suspect is
released without charge.
Even more worrying situations are
emerging where a complaint is made
and upon arrival at the scene the
alleged perpetrator makes a counter
allegation to the police and both
parties are arrested. This results
in victims of domestic violence
being arrested. Everyone working
in the criminal justice arena wants
perpetrators of domestic violence
and sexual assaults to be prosecuted.
Arresting people in situations where
there is no realistic prospect of a
prosecution is not the answer.
Rape is often one person’s word
against another. Alleging rape does
not mean a rape has occurred. The
police have insuffi cient resources to
fi nd corroborative evidence and this,
together with the often reluctance
of alleged victims to testify, means
successful prosecutions are rare.
Katie Steiner
Sheffi eld
- Anyone working in the criminal
jazz musician’s career path and how
they are supported and sustained.
Renaissance, revival or reemergence,
the music will look after itself. But the
infrastructure needs to be developed
and kept in constant repair.
Chris Hodgkins
West Ealing, London- The Guardian reports that jazz is
enjoying a fresh wave of popularity.
Why then did last Saturday’s northern
edition of the Guide list just fi ve jazz
concerts across the whole of northern
England and Wales? Yet in my
homepatch of Tyneside alone I know
of 14 gigs in the current week, and
this is a quiet period as some clubs
begin a summer break. The same, I’m
sure, will be true of other towns and
cities across the region. T he continual
shrinkage in the jazz listings seems
perverse. Could it be the Guardian
regards jazz as a source for occasional
news stories , but in respect to its
existence as a live, cultural force, it
can continue to be pushed aside to
the narrowest of margins?
Paul Bream
Wallsend, North Tyneside
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letters-termsTwo women a week are
killed by partners or
ex-partners – usually
after reporting
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