April 7, 1928

Letters to the Editor

Sir, - The increase in spelling and grammatical mistakes is both amusing and alarming. It marks an indifference to spelling and grammar in present-day teaching of which we once approved, largely perhaps, by way of reaction from the undue stress they received in our own youth.

In one of the best cafes in a large town, I saw a warning which said:

“Ladies are requested not to loose sight of their handbags.” We shall have to teach enough grammar to prevent public inaccuracy. Otherwise the correct grammatical forms of sentences will only be found in the archives of the British Museum or university libraries.

Ida M Cowley

50 YEARS AGO

April 10, 1953

There is no escape for parents. Even the most widely ramifying or tortuous anxiety about children leads back at last into the family.

At Blackpool last Monday Mr A Granville Prior, recalling that the home still had essential work to do, spoke of the important part which outside influences such as comics, books, the Press, films, radio and television played, not always worthily in young people’s lives.

25 YEARS AGO

April 14, 1978

Both the new Conservative statement on immigration and the recent report of the House of Commons Select Committee concentrate on marginal attempts to clamp down still further on the small number of immigrants now being allowed to settle in Britain.

When all the fiddling with figures is over and done with, when fiances have been separated from fiancees, and brides and grooms have been put in their respective boxes, the most that can be claimed for the new restrictions now being put forward is that they will make a marginal reduction in a small total.