WHAT horrible people our parents' generation must have been. We are all products of our environment; I remember getting the belt at school (on more than one occasion), walking in all weathers to and from school without someone to protect me from paedophiles, having a tooth extracted under general anaesthetic at about the age of 12 sans chaperone then walking back up the road to return to school.

I remember years of delivering newspapers in the dark and pumping petrol after school, household chores and take it or leave it at mealtimes. Foreign holidays... what were they? TV was black and white if you had one and most of the programmes like Are You Being Served?, 'Allo 'Allo and Till Death Us Do Part wouldn’t get past today’s Thought Police. Spike Milligan “blacked-up” as an Indian pretending to be Irish: yes it happened and on the BBC.

Today, as Stuart Waiton highlights in his column about Bristol University ("Universities face serious threat to free speech", The Herald, February 24), it appears that even stating an opinion based on irrefutable fact can engender the wrath of the “Woke brigade”. Opinions will soon be given to us rather than be concepts we create ourselves and to deviate from the officially sanctioned view will occasion retribution. Don’t even whisper them in private.

Having witnessed the politically correct transformations that have happened to society in the last 20 years or so I dread to think what the situation will be like in another 10 years. If I survive, the Thought Police will never be away from my wee hoose, horrible person that I am.

David J Crawford, Glasgow.

PROTECT PEOPLE, NOT THEIR IDEAS

IN his letter discussing the flawed Hate Crime Bill (February 23), Michael Kent both wrongly fears that some religious opinion might be silenced and chillingly demands that religious belief should be protected from “expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule or insult”.

People must be protected … not their ideas.

It would be a Brave New Scotland indeed that criminalised Life of Brian.

Neil Barber, Edinburgh Secular Society, Edinburgh.

STIGMATISING THE TEACHERS

WHY are the media continuously interviewing parents regarding their children's loss of learning, stigmatising the issue through phrases like "a lost year of education"? With the current focus on mental health, surely they are exacerbating an already tense situation?

Children have continued to learn core skills like numeracy and literacy and many will also have gained life skills they wouldn't have learnt at school. This media questioning is also painting a bad light on our teachers when in fact praise should be given for the extra work and time they have put in during lockdown.

Many children will be looking forward to going back to school, but many will also need extra academic and emotional support which teachers, due to class size and limited staffing, do not have the time to provide. This will need to be provided through extra learning support during normal school hours.

Children should not be expected to have a longer school day or study during school holidays as has been suggested by some. I would recommend a registration system is set up to attract ex-teachers which schools can tap into for a year. The Government will need to find the money to support it.

Claire Shaw, Dunblane.

WHY THE DENTAL SCHOOLS DISPARITY?

THE Scottish dental schools are delaying graduation for dental students and not admitting new students for a whole year. This has significant and very unfortunate implications for dental workforce planning and individual students. Whilst it is of course understood that the pandemic has caused enormous problems for dental studies, it appears that the English dental schools will graduate their students on time and take in new students.

Why is there such a cross-border disparity? Have the Scottish schools failed to plan sufficiently to overcome the difficulties? Or, has money not been forthcoming from the Scottish Government to facilitate Covid compliance so that the students could graduate on time?

Dr John R Drummond, Former President, British Dental Association, Cellardyke, Fife.

THE BEER BARON

THE mayhem of warring student factions at Glasgow’s Central Station in 1955, courtesy of Russell Leadbetter ("Remember when ... University Challenge was never like this", The Herald, February 26), reminded me that, as a blameless spectator that same Charities Day, I witnessed a lorry loaded with crates of beer which had broken down on the other side of the Clyde quickly pillaged by enthusiasts unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth.

On the basis that the polis will have quietly shelved ongoing inquiries I can now reveal that the ringleader, sporting outsized dampened bloomers and a placard “I P Squint”, went on to become a respected member of the medical profession and pillar of the community.

R Russell Smith, Largs.