We must never allow this government to divide us with their ‘culture wars’

A new report by an Education Select Committee essentially blames the fight for racial equality for the lack of achievement by white working-class children. The report doesn’t blame a decade of cuts in education, much less the near half-century of devastation visited on working-class communities by Thatcherite free-market dogma.

The Tories love white working-class children so much they tried to deny them free school meals three times last year and only backed down because Marcus Rashford fought for all poor children to be fed. Earlier this year, the government-sponsored Sewell Report made the ludicrous claim that institutional racism did not exist in the UK. Last week, the home secretary, Priti Patel, defended the “right” of people to jeer football players who “take the knee” in solidarity with the anti-racist movement. And at the weekend, Tory peer Dido Harding announced she would ensure there were fewer “foreign” doctors and nurses in the NHS should her bid to lead it be successful.

The Tories are trying to deflect public anger over their failure to deal with the coronavirus epidemic by promoting and endorsing racism. If the working class – which is a social category and not an ethnicity – allow ourselves to be divided, the only beneficiaries will be the privately educated bigots who rule us.

Sasha Simic

London N16

I am concerned, as a teacher who has experience of teaching white working-class students, that the Conservative members of the Education Select Committee believe that “white privilege” explains why working-class students do so badly at school. I went to a comprehensive myself, where they taught me metal and wood work, textiles, cooking and graphic design. Today, these technical subjects are marginalised by the curriculum as they are expensive, hard to staff and difficult to get top grades in. The white working classes have to put up with “academic privilege” within schools, which puts them off learning and explains why they do so badly.

Kartar Uppal

Sutton Coldfield

In your editorial, We have no option but to take the long view on the post-Covid economy (22 June), the perspective you set out is misleading. You compare UK public sector debt today with 1945, saying that debt is “some way below the level it stood at after the end of the Second World War”. This is true for government debt (currently 100 per cent of GDP) but sadly it misses the bigger picture. Private sector borrowing in 1945 was only 12 per cent of GDP but is now three times that by government. Total debt matters and is now excessive compared to 1945. In addition, the private sector pays higher interest rates on its borrowing than government, giving rise to a more severe economic impact.

By coincidence, in the same edition your reporter James Moore describes the private sector debt problem accurately regarding Morrisons (The Morrisons takeover proposal is nothing but bad news for staff, 22 June). If this should go ahead, it will be just one more example of financial engineering creating an economic burden that few understand.

David Kauders

Address supplied

Johnathan Longstaff makes the point in his letter (God’s voters, 22 June) that “Church members in droves may turn their back on [Boris Johnson]” unless he allows church goers to “worship as God demands”.

However, should there not be a far greater compulsion on religiously minded people to turn their backs on Johnson? Why would any individual who believes in following the teachings of Christ wish to follow an individual who is known to have so many character flaws as Johnson? How can an individual consider themselves to be a follower of the Holy Scriptures and give their allegiance to a man who has been proven to be so self-serving?

By all means, do the Christian thing and “forgive him his trespasses against us”, but trust him no more than the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

David Curran

Feltham, Middlesex

Dominic Cummings asserts that there is a mask behind the mask that Boris Johnson presents to the public. Is it too fanciful to suggest that the curtain may soon be pulled fully back, revealing that the Tory party is now led by nothing more than a rather hopeless magician?

John Evans

Pulborough, West Sussex

The OECD reviewers of Scotland’s education deplore “rote learning”. Perhaps they can explain how a pianist gains proficiency without learning and practising scales and chords ad infinitum. Or how a chemistry student progresses without learning the symbols of chemical formulae. Or how a historian interprets the past without learning and memorising dates and events. There is plenty to criticise in the “Curriculum for Excellence”, but anyone who thinks that students can acquire techniques without first acquiring knowledge needs an education.

Jill Stephenson

Edinburgh

A good law is one that is fair and just, is needed, can be obeyed and can be enforced. The Scottish government’s attempt to ban travel between Scotland and Manchester does not meet all these tests. If I wish to travel from Glasgow to Manchester, I can drive to the border or I can take a train to Carlisle. Once in England, I can go where I like, and the Scottish government can do nothing about it.

The Scottish government’s attempt to extend its writ beyond its own country is extra-territorial and is therefore null and void.

Sam Boote

Nottingham