Letters and emails: August 30

Guilty America

What could be deduced by going through the lists was that the nation with the most returning offenders in its team at the world championships was not Russia, Belarus or Ukraine, but America, with five previously banned athletes included.

Moreover, the list included an athlete who was not actually travelling to Beijing (although selected), and at least one who was banned for missing three unannounced tests.

Reading the first article of your campaign, it appeared that certain countries (including Russia, Turkey and Spain) were proportionately tested at higher levels than the norm, indicating that targeted testing was taking place.
Malcolm Warburton, Sandbach, Cheshire

On the BBC's decision to end its contract with the Met Office

The BBC's dropping of the Met Office is a silly decision and must be reversed. The corporation's 'competitive Tendering' process is for paperclips, not for a public weather service. It is obvious that the state broadcaster must use the state met service as they are both funded by us all and represent the best possible service and highest standards. The BBC must revoke this decision as it is not possible that a foreign third-party provider can do the job: we know well all the firms bidding for the job and there is no way they could provide the same as the current arrangement. Yes, the Met Office can be difficult to deal with; we spent many years negotiating with the BBC, but we saw our job as fostering a relationship that would ensure licence-payers got the best possible weather reports. Most certainly they did. Perhaps the BBC has lost its way and can't remember what a state broadcaster is there for! It is to Inform, educate and entertain, and that is all there in the current excellent BBC weather forecasts. You have to ask who in the BBC is promoting this and for what reason? Is there a political perspective, where the BBC is trying to demonstrate to the government that it is being lean and mean as it works toward the licence fee renewal? Viewers and listeners are being cheated for no gain.

There has been much press speculation that it is all about cost, but our understanding is that the Met Office was rejected before the finance round, which hasn’t even started. We know that the private weather sector around the world is desperate to get the BBC contract and would probably go to any length to win it. It would then allow them to pick off other met services.

Over the years, both of us have often spoken at the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva and promoted the relationship between state broadcaster and state met service. The reason why the BBC Weather Centre was able to grow and flourish to an extent where it was producing 140 bespoke broadcasts every 24 hours was because we had a relationship where both parties wanted excellence to serve the people of the UK, and indeed around the world through BBC World News. It made us a world leader and a beacon for others.

Our model was readily picked up by other countries, in particular the developing nations, where a poorly forecast and broadcast large weather event could set back a country for several years. As climate change develops, there will be more intense weather events that can cause considerable damage to life and infrastructure, particularly in poorer countries. My concern is that if the BBC drops the Met Office, the private sector will then use its success with the BBC contract to persuade other to follow.

But the real issue is, how will it affect what the BBC provides on radio and TV? All but one of the people who present the weather are Met Office staff, and we are sure that as scientists some will decide that their future remains in the Met Office, in particular safeguarding their pension rights. Finding good broadcast meteorologists is very hard; we know this all too well from experience. So if people leave, how is this new private contractor going to fill the gaps? We fear it will be aspiring young ’stars and starlets’ who will simply read a prepared script with no idea what they are saying. It is yet another example of dumbing down rather than seeking excellence. Has the BBC lost its way? The public expects the BBC to set the gold standard.

Bill Giles OBE, former senior BBC weatherman, and John Teather, founder and editor of the BBC Weather Centre

Parents now have freedom to speak out on education

COMPLIMENTS to The Sunday Times. “Stop the Rot” and “Experts urge U-turn on Scots exit from global education surveys” (Focus and News, last week) said what many parents have felt for some time. We can now express a common angst without fear of being seen as difficult parents. This issue is of significance for the future of Scotland and our standing in the global community.

Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has been debated at length by educationalists and it is clear that the current programme being implemented was defined before the debate had been concluded. I agree that there are some positive changes within CfE but from the outset it raised a number of fundamental questions.

CfE will at best be a transitional experiment while our children’s education and Scotland’s future is compromised. It was good to hear Nicola Sturgeon has recognised these weaknesses and will hurry along change. Now the risk is that when the inevitable change is implemented, some positive aspects of CfE may be lost.

Jeff Knight North Berwick, East Lothian

Stop opting out

The SNP’s decision to discontinue Scotland’s participation in international comparative studies on students’ achievement in mathematic, science, reading and literacy is reason for serious concern. These studies provide participating countries with objective data on how they perform globally and enable them to monitor their own system from survey to survey.

Taking part seems to be a no-brainer and Scotland did so until 2007. Compared to other nations, Scotland didn’t score too poorly but didn’t excel, either. In any case, it stayed well behind England.

The follow-up studies in 2011, 2015 and 2016 would have given the SNP-led government the opportunity to demonstrate its competence in improving education outcomes. Instead, it opted out. This is the background against which Sturgeon now wishes to be judged and trusted.

Regina Erich Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Rich resource

Gillian Bowditch asks when I last visited a library (“The writing was always on the wall for libraries once the internet arrived”, Comment, last week). The day before I read her column would be my answer. She proceeded to criticise the state of some of our public libraries and concluded with the view that books are not important in the internet age.

Last weekend, I visited my library to collect a book I’d reserved for my daughter. I’m a regular user of East Lothian’s online library reservation service but still value the buildings and staff, and the physical qualities of a book.

Libraries are not “denuded”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Musselburgh library offers Bookbug sessions with songs and rhymes for babies and toddlers, book groups for schoolchildren and adults, a Sporting Memories Group, Knit and Natter, jobseeker help and technology learner sessions. It takes donations for the local food bank, stages photography exhibitions and offers internet access for those not online at home. I for one am proud of it.

Jason Rose Musselburgh, East Lothian

Babies need books

I normally enjoy articles by Bowditch but in this case I would like to know when she herself last visited a library. The Edinburgh libraries that I visit with my family are vibrant places with staff who are always available to help.

I have a son who is a principal teacher and two daughters-in-law who are primary school teachers and they tell me that closure of libraries would be one of the worst things to happen in Edinburgh. They say that when children start primary 1 they can tell within days those who have had stories read to them.

There are many families who are struggling to buy food, let alone books and this is a way of helping them.

M Morrison Edinburgh

Laughing-stock Labour will hurt democracy

JEREMY CORBYN has not a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected prime minister, so does the suicidal folly of the Labour party matter to the rest of us, except as a source of malicious humour (“The Trots have a gun to Labour’s head. And so the fight begins again”, Betty Boothroyd, Comment, last week)?

Well, yes, it does, because for democracy to function, the government needs a plausible opposition. A disintegrating Labour party — headed by a student union-like activist who, as was said of Tony Benn, immatures with age — cannot provide that. We are in danger of drifting into a one-party state and that needs to concern us if we value a healthy democracy.
Simon Kemper, London NW1

Tories in disguise

Oppositions have to offer something “opposing” the government. No wonder people say they have no idea what Labour’s empty shell stands for, because Tony Blair made it look and behave like the Conservative party with little pink bits: loving the City, selling council houses, allowing the rail sell-off to stand, introducing more NHS privatisation.

If you want all that, vote Tory and get the proper thing.
Nigel Toye, Kendal

Broom service

Many on the left are behind Corbyn because of his support for socialism and his opposition to austerity. Many who deserted Labour after the capturing of the party by the right are seeking to return. Many young people are being inspired to take part in Labour’s primary.

The national initiatives — and I have been involved in all of them — to launch a party to the left of Labour have had limited success, apart from my local Lewisham People Before Profit party. On September 12 it appears the left will have the stable yard broom in its hands and it will be our turn to do some mucking out.
Nick Long, Lewisham Unite (Chairman), London SE6

Loss leader

One of the main problems is that Ed Miliband simply ran away after the general election, dumping everything on his deputy, Harriet Harman, instead of playing a guardian-type role until a new leader was found.

And the electoral system, where supporters have as much say as members, has led to possible entryism. I guess Labour grandees will just have to “suck it up” and if Corbyn does win, the party will be badly split.
Ian Burgess, Tickenham, Somerset

Question time

Those who condescendingly endorsed Corbyn’s candidature so as to widen the debate must be kicking themselves. It’s terrific stuff if you enjoy a bunfight, but tragic if you believe in a strong opposition. It leaves the job of questioning government policy to the unelected likes of John Humphrys on Radio 4.
Richard Lovegrove, By email

Studying is off syllabus for ‘book-blockers’

I LOVE the term “book-blockers” — Camilla Long’s description of people “who go to university simply because it’s totally the thing to do” (“Pink, puffy, cloying: Pippa and James make a total marshmallow of it”, Comment, last week). In one recent article a student said she wanted to go “for the whole experience — meeting people and being independent and... having that freedom away from my parents” (“Graduate passport to top jobs expires”, News, August 9). Whatever happened to wanting to go to study?

Otherwise, six months in Thailand should tick the meeting-people, freedom-from-parents and independence boxes. It would fill the gap between leaving school and getting a proper job nicely.
Annie Boon,Wantage, Oxfordshire

Point of contention

Does this mean Long considers mature students such as myself, doing an Open University degree simply for reasons of personal satisfaction and self-development, to be “pointless people pointlessly doing degrees”?
Denise LeCroy, Ottershaw, Surrey

Don’t forget brave ‘Few’ of Auxiliary Air Force

I WAS interested to read Patrick Bishop’s article on the Battle of Britain (“The legion of lads who forged a new Britain”, News Review, last week) but surprised he made no reference to the existence or participation of the then Auxiliary Air Force. The force was created on October 9, 1924, by order in council and became operational the following year with the founding of four flying squadrons on a county or city basis. By the outbreak of war in 1939 the Auxiliary Air Force had expanded to 20 squadrons and 47 barrage balloon units. During the Battle of Britain 14 auxiliary squadrons signed the skies with their honour and it has been claimed that one out of three enemy aircraft destroyed fell to an auxiliary squadron. The prefix “Royal” was granted in 1947 in recognition of the auxiliary squadrons’ distinguished war service.
Group Captain LE Robins, Liskeard, Cornwall

Allied aces high

Bishop describes how the Battle of Britain airmen “came from every stratum of Britain’s laminated class structure”. What is not mentioned is that about 20% of the pilots came from the dominions or, as with the Czechs and Poles, from German-occupied Europe. Josef Frantisek, a Czech flying with the Polish 303 Squadron, could have been included in the top aces mentioned.
Michael Olizar, London SW15

Cowardly Isis killers not worthy to be called ‘fighters’

READING about the cold-blooded murder in Syria of the 82-year-old Professor Khaled al-Assad (“The martyr of Palmyra”, Focus, last week), I despair that you continue to describe the barbarians who beheaded him and hung his body from a column as “fighters”. In whose book can the vicious killing of an unarmed old man be “a fight”?
Neville Seabridge, Nottingham

Uphill struggle for female skiers in iran

We lived in Iran for a year, on the slopes of a mountain, and in winter we were invited to a ski resort for a weekend (“Into Iran”, Christina Lamb, Travel, last week). On venturing out onto the pistes, a friend told us that although the skiing was very reasonable compared with the European resorts, women were allowed to use only the lower slopes, something that was enforced by the religious police. However, the wives of ski instructors had recently been permitted to teach women to ski.
Liz Davies, Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire

Missed out

Christine Ohuruogu received a one-year ban for missing drug tests, not for doping. Fans of athletics — rather than the headlines — know that Ohuruogu explained her foolish mistake at the time and paid a heavy price for it. Those who have followed her career never doubted her.
Barbara Smyth, Cheltenham

Careers advice

The World Anti-Doping Agency has been advised a lifetime ban for an athlete’s first offence would be a “breach of their rights to earn a living”. There’s nothing stopping them working — just look for other employment.
David Hope Robertson, Oxford

Mass deception

Your leader appears to run contrary to public opinion (“Don’t reward the cheats — kick them out”, Editorial, last week). The prevailing response to Dominic Lawson’s article on the cheating endemic in football seemed to suggest the general populace prefer soap opera and skulduggery to honourable competition (“Bubbling over with joy at football’s soap opera”, Letters, last week). So why waste time trying to promote the illusion that athletics is untainted?
Mark Brennand, Wolverhampton

No expenses spared

David Cameron either had a mote in his eye when he selected Douglas Hogg for a peerage, or he wished to expand the House of Lords fiddle orchestra.

Patrick Tracey, Carlisle

Lost voice

Along with 3.88m others, I voted for Ukip at the general election. The result: one MP and not a single peer in Cameron’s list. Can someone please explain how we can be represented at Westminster?
Francis Bown, London E3

Bringing the house down

The former Labour minister Manny Shinwell was both crass and malicious in ordering open-cast mining of inferior-quality coal, thus destroying the grounds of Wentworth Woodhouse (“A diamond drama to dwarf Downton”, News, last week). The “commanding heights of the economy” — coal and steel — were controlled by his Ministry of Fuel and Power, which soon became known as the Ministry of Fools in Power.
Don Alexander, Sheffield

Limits of charity

Kids Company had plenty of high-profile support but sadly the politicians and celebrities that championed it appear to have been blind to its failings (“Kids Company’s Camila digs in”, News, last week). No entity, whether a charity, business, government agency, school or individual can spend more money than it has without going bust. No matter how well meaning, a charity must also comply with the law: Kids Company is no exception. The trustees should now meet the charity’s debts from their own resources and prosecutions should be brought against those responsible for any financial mismanagement and unlawful activities. This includes Camila Batmanghelidjh, if she is to blame.
Paul Foster, Harpenden

All in a day’s work

As a doctor I was enthralled when I read the headline “Dead man given CPR for 40 minutes” (News, last week). I can now see myself as someone who does one thing nearly every day worthy of a story in one of the most important newspapers in the country. Might I point out, however, that reporting on an occasion when a living man is given CPR for 40 minutes is likely to capture the attention of more than just the astute medical reader.
Cristiano van Zeller, By email

Liddle and often

The Sunday Times has found a way of ruining my breakfast in only four words. “Rod Liddle is away”, indeed.
John English, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

Corrections and clarifications

In “ ‘Three Gaffs’ Lewis claims for hotels” (News, last week) we stated that the housing minister Brandon Lewis owns a property in the constituency of Brentford and Ongar. It is, of course, Brentwood and Ongar. We apologise for the error.

Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times should be addressed to complaints@sunday-times.co.uk or Complaints, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF. In addition, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) will examine formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines. Please go to our complaints section for full details of how to lodge a complaint.

Birthdays

Warren Buffett, investor, 85; Cameron Diaz, actress, 43; Sir Antony Gormley, sculptor, 65; Muriel Gray, broadcaster, 57; Lord Healey, former chancellor, 98; Robin Lustig, broadcaster, 67; Sue MacGregor, broadcaster, 74; Paul Oakenfold, record producer, 52; Andy Roddick, tennis player, 33

Anniversaries

1797 birth of Mary Shelley, author; 1835 city of Melbourne founded; 1871 birth of Ernest Rutherford, physicist; 1901 Hubert Cecil Booth patents first powered vacuum cleaner, nicknamed “Puffing Billy”; 1918 Lenin survives an assassination attempt and orders the start of the Red Terror campaign