For some people, giving up social media will be like giving up smoking

The banning of smartphones seems like an excellent – if futile – initiative, as young people have almost merged with the virtual social media world. Disentangling them will be as easy as giving up smoking – difficult for most, impossible for many.

Will teachers also be required to put their phones in a locker before work? An obvious, but horrific, extension of this approach would be to require workers to leave their phones in the staffroom lockers, although this would just send more of them home to become permanent home workers.

There is an old saying about “shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted” – I fear that may be the case with the younger generation, who may be too far gone to tear themselves away from their phones now.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Address supplied

The footage of cruel and heartless treatment of cows on RSPCA-assured farms is enough to make you weep.

Over and over again, covert filming reveals the horrors to which innocent animals are subjected at the hands of humans, contrasting starkly with the PR image and empty claims of some of those using animals for profit or entertainment. Exploitation of animals is often riddled with cruelty.

In M&S’s glossy TV ads, the impression given is that the consumer can rest assured all animals in their approved farms live happy and pain-free lives. That clearly is not the case.

Animals are not cruel or depraved, but far too many humans are both. We should stop focusing on every tiny detail of human existence and grievance until we have eradicated cruelty to animals. We could start with rigorous legislation to protect animals instead of the feeble and unenforced laws currently in place.

Penny Little

Oxfordshire

As a lifelong liberal and a member of the Liberal Democrats, I am concerned that the party is treating traditional Christians like David Campanale unfairly in selection procedures.

The party states clearly in its preamble to the constitution that it “exists to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society”. This should mean the party values and protects individual religious beliefs, rather than imposing a secular party stance. The party needs to remember it is part of the society it exists to serve.

Kartar Uppal

West Midlands

It is heartening to see that the younger generation seems to have more sense than mine does, based on The Independent’s poll, which shows they are at the forefront of the drive to reverse Brexit.

What a pity that they must suffer because of the hubris and shortsightedness of their forebears. Hopefully, this disaster will be undone in their lifetimes – I fear that it will not in mine.

Stephen Bloom

Canterbury