Monday 2 May 2022 The Guardian •
Letters 5
- An article about the UK
government’s new energy strategy
said targets for onshore wind and
solar power generation would
be raised in a push for 95% of
electricity to come from domestic
renewable energy sources by
- That should have referred
to “off shore wind” and domestic
“low-carbon” energy sources
( PM’s push for nuclear power
splits Tories and angers green
groups , 7 April, p1).
I could never live in a city, but
if I had to it would probably be
Edinburgh. Not for any cosmopolitan
character to the street life or the
claustrophobia-allaying breadth of
those Georgian streets, but because
it’s a city you can escape at any
moment. In your head, at least.
Looming over almost every
part is Arthur’s Seat, which Robert
Louis Stevenson judged a hill in
size, but “a mountain in virtue of
its bold design ”. It’s this eternally
reassuring presence in Edinburgh’s
civic space that puts me at ease.
The volcanic plug creates a sense
of a natural landscape and near-
tranquillity, despite the encircling
thrum from over 540,000 people.
It may be enmeshed in human
ideas – such as the Camelot
connotations of the name – but
physically it carries deeper, rich
links to the wild. There are the
seismic trauma of its birth and the
underlying fact of its 340m-year
endurance. From many angles
it’s thought to resemble a resting
lion (I’d suggest a magnifi cent old
lioness), with her raised forehead
as the hill’s 250-metre summit.
At any season there is a
constant traffi c of people to that
spot; in eff ect, to be a fl ea in a
big cat’s ear. I usually for go the
crowded summit for something
more wonderful: her coat of
sun-simmering yellow. Right now
the whole hill is a blaze of gorse
blossom. It is odd that a such an
essentially militant plant should
cloak itself in the densest, most
delicate fl owers. I don’t think
I have ever encountered gorse
with more profuse blooms.
It’s as if the plant knows the
iconic status of its location. Should
the Scots ever choose independence
(and why on earth wouldn’t they?)
I propose Arthur’s Seat as the
symbol for the nation. From its
summit you can see the whole
Firth of Forth and beyond. True,
there are the old castle and the
new national parliament complex,
but in 10,000 years’ time, which of
these will still stand? I’m putting
my money on solid Carboniferous
magma. Besides, which of those
three has a self-renewing ability
to make Edinburgh’s spring air
heavenly with the thick scent of
vanilla and coconut?
Mark Cocker
School exams: the fl aws
in the education system
Established 1906
Country diary
Arthur’s Seat,
Edinburgh
I greatly enjoyed Sophie Elmhirst’s
article on the last of the UK’s phone
boxes ( The long read, 28 April ). In
the late 1980s, I worked for British
Telecom in east London and when
a new boss of “public call offi ces”
(as phone boxes were offi cially
called) was appointed, I was asked
to take him on a tour of some of his
new property. I took him to the site
of one that I knew was frequently
vandalised. All that remained
were a few metal stubs poking out
of the ground. It at least gave the
new guy a feel for the scale of his
job. From what I remember, he
didn’t last long.
Steve Townsley
Bridgend- Your article was a joyous trip
down memory lane. In the mid-
1980s, I was the press offi cer for
the international division of British
Telecom. Due to a lack of interest
from the corporate centre, I found
myself managing the 30 or so
BT district press offi cers dotted
around the UK on matters of red
phone boxes. As part of that, in
tandem with my BT colleague
Our red phone
boxes call up
fond memories
education is not perfect, and it
is not the only route to high Pisa
performance. But the OECD is
in no doubt what a 21st-century
education requires: “When teachers
feel a sense of ownership over their
classrooms, when students feel
a sense of ownership over their
learning, that is when learning for
the ... information age can take
place.” There is an alternative,
if we so choose.
Chris Sinha
Honorary professor, University
of East Anglia- Once again, George Monbiot
has highlighted a major fl aw in
UK society and the role exams
play in preserving privilege. It is,
of course, possible to by pass the
system, as my own experience has
shown. Having left state school
at age 17 without any A-levels, I
then managed to re-enter higher
education by gaining work place
qualifi cations to gain a BSc and
PhD, and became a professor at the
University of Nottingham.
The challenge of regurgitating
information in exams in no way
helped me. But having a more
rounded education provided me
Full marks to George Monbiot for
his critique of the English school
exam system ( England’s punitive
exam system is only good at
one thing: preserving privilege,
theguardian.com, 27 April ). He
asks what would a fair, rounded
21st-century education look like.
One answer would be to look
at Finland, where there are no
exams before school leaving and
no league tables. All assessment is
teacher-based, geared to guiding
further learning. Teachers enjoy
high professional autonomy,
grounded in their own education
to master’s level. The Finnish
system is avowedly egalitarian,
with the aim of minimising social
inequalities. All students receive
free school meals. And guess what?
Finland outperforms the UK not
only in terms of wellbeing and life
satisfaction of 15-year-olds, but
also in their performance in the
OECD Pisa tests, based on reading,
mathematics and science.
The English education system
is based on three C s: competition,
coercion and cramming. The Finnish
system rests on three diff erent C s:
collaboration, communication
and conceptualisation. Finnishwith a much more supportive
attitude in teaching students,
hopefully helping many to fully
reach their potential, beyond the
normal criteria of exam grades.
Dr Michael Symonds
Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire- There are reasons other than
those George Monbiot mentions
that explain the government’s
desire for introducing a Gradgrind
education system. Reducing the
curriculum to easily quantifi able
elements makes it easy for the
government to control education
and to ensure educational deviancy
is eliminated. Good schools are
those that match up to criteria
determined by the government.
Margaret Thatcher’s distress at
the wrong sort of people controlling
our children’s education is no
longer a problem. Curriculum and
teaching methods are determined
by ministers. Any school that
doesn’t meet the imposed criteria
will be deemed failing and closed.
Educational deviancy, or more
correctly, independent thinking, is
eliminated from the system.
This system also provides plenty
of “red meat” to be thrown to the
media. An arbitrary change in the
rules makes it easy to fi nd schools
that are failing. There is nothing
more likely to thrill the rightwing
media than a tough minister
cracking down on errant schools.
Derrick Joad
Leeds
Dave Wenlock, I toured schools,
Dave suitably dressed in his “Mr
Payphone” costume, imparting
to young children the importance
to the community of a working,
reliable payphone network, key
in those pre- mobile phone days.
Wonderful memories.
Mike Abbott
Chiswick, London- Towns that still possess a
telephone kiosk designed by
Giles Gilbert Scott might like to
recognise its value by making it a
listed building. Here in Shoreham-
by-Sea, we have one that’s Grade
II-listed. The 1920s Homes for
Heroes Sea Mills estate in Bristol
has one that contains its museum.
These very British structures need
to be retained, if only for their
visual importance.
Tony Vinicombe
Shoreham, West Sussex - We still have a (working) red
telephone box in Low Mill,
Farndale. Given that you cannot
get a mobile phone signal here,
one of these days it will come in
useful. In the meantime, its main
role will remain acting as a focal
point for every photographer
passing through (red phone box,
19th-century stone bridge and
a chapel – the epitome of the
North York Moors ).
Mark Newbury
Farndale, North Yorkshire
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Like many Guardian readers, I
have thoroughly enjoyed and
always look forward to reading
Marina Hyde’s witty and caustic
commentaries on the world about
us. However, I was dismayed to
read a somewhat uncalled for
slur about the game of real tennis
in the closing paragraph of her
article on Twitter’s new owner
(Twitter has got the new owner
it deserves, 27 April).
What has real tennis ever
done to Marina to cause such
an unprovoked attack? Perhaps
we should be told. It is certainly
not my experience of 30 years’
involvement with real tennis at
Cambridge, where the university
club is (unusually) open to
young and old from all sorts of
backgrounds, including both
members and non-members of
the university.
It has brought together town
and gown and off ered fun,
pleasure, physical exercise and
friendship to many.
I would welcome a visit to the
club from Ms Hyde so that, as a
journalist, she might be better
acquainted with the facts.
Jeremy Fairbrother
Trinity College, University
of CambridgeReal tennis badly
served by cruel slur
Corrections and
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@guardianlettersEditorial complaints and corrections can be sent to
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editor, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU.
You can also leave a voicemail on 020 3353 4736There is only one way that
parliament could be reformed
and that would be to consign
the current building to history
by making it into a wonderful
museum and not wasting money
on trying to make it into a
modern working environment.
Design a beautiful piece of
architecture that is fi t for purpose
and encourages proper debate
and effi cient working practices
(just take a look at the Scottish
parliament building) and maybe
our MPs will then drag themselves
into today’s world.
Margaret Garland
Saff ron Walden, Essex- How can we trust a premier
such as the British Virgin Islands’
Andrew Fahie if he needs a
calculator to work out 10% of
$7.8m (‘Head coach wants to play’:
inside the drug sting that led to
leader’s detention, 30 April)?
Toby Wood
Peterborough - Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for
allium tuna bake ( Feast, 30 April )
broke new ground for me. Not only
had I heard of all the ingredients
but I actually had them in stock.
The temptation was too great so I
made it for Saturday lunch and it
was delicious. I hope this is part
of a new trend.
Melvyn Ellis
Harrogate, North Yorkshire - Re backhanded compliments
(Letters, 29 April) , as proud
fi rst -time parents we welcomed a
second visit from the local vicar.
“What an improvement,” he said
when he saw her.
Diane Morris
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire - To all you “audio” Wordle buff s
(Letters, 30 April) , I have only one
word to say to you : “Adieu!”
Ian Garner
Keighley, West Yorkshire
Parliament is in real
need of a fresh start