It's great that there are rooms available for those who wish to feed their infants in private but why should breastfeeding mothers be ushered to a small room somewhere if they don't want to be?I am sure that one reason so many women have problems with breastfeeding is that it is very rarely done in public places or in front of other people and we no longer learn how to do it from our mothers, aunts etc because we just don't see it happening .. and often it can take a bit of learning. Just like the recently expelled Sheikh Omar Bakri, I would also now feel reluctant to report suspicious activities to the authorities and would instead try to put a stop to it myself if I could rather than see more innocent blood spilled on a mere suspicion.DAW'UD ABDULLAH MANNIONSHEFFIELDFeeding babies in public placesSir: I feel outraged that Ms Mikkelson was asked to stop breastfeeding her baby in a public place ("Mother in pleas for breastfeeding law", 10 August) and would welcome any law which was on the side of the breastfeeding mother.Historic Royal Palaces said, "We have many visitors ... He even collected his usual newspaper like any of us on our way to work.Perhaps the most disturbing aspect is that I am probably not the only law-abiding British Muslim to have now lost all confidence in our anti-terror police. I thought such practices had stopped in the UK with the miscarriages of justice in the 1970s and 80s or were confined to trigger-happy US and British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.We were told he wore a padded jacket or rucksack: this turned out to be a lie We were told he ignored police warnings: another lie We were told he vaulted the barriers: another lie.
How many innocents should we sacrifice to the guns of frightened and poorly informed policemen in an illusory bid to guarantee safety? Two already seems too many.GERALD FRESHWATERLERWICK, SHETLANDSir: I do not know which is more disturbing about the execution of the Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes by anti-terror police officers - whether it is the fact that the police seem to have been so incompetent that they would shoot an innocent man on a mere suspicion or that the authorities seem to have kept changing their story afterwards. Even after lengthy consideration of guilt "beyond reasonable doubt" by a jury and a careful decision on sentencing by a judge, it was a punishment too dreadful to use.Now, in a resurgence of terrorism, which this nation has weathered before, summary execution is supposed a reasonable response to mere suspicion, and decided in minutes or less. So far the results have been poor: one Scot carrying a table leg, a Brazilian with a free newspaper, but no terrorists.There is no reliable defence against a determined suicide, except perhaps a society where there is as little reason for hate as possible. If Mr Blair sincerely believes there are chemical weapons in Iraq, then he can properly unleash aggressive war on the country, even if the weapons do not in fact exist.This seems to put back a sincere belief in things for which there is no hard evidence - "faith", as it's called - to the position it formerly occupied as the supreme moral virtue.ANDREW COULSONMUSSELBURGH, EAST LOTHIANSir: For a variety of reasons, partly humane but also because of the awful consequences of error, this country abandoned the death penalty more than forty years ago. The anger felt over the de Menezes killing must surely be widened to the context in which such an action was possible.IAN PARTRIDGEBRADFORD, WEST YORKSHIRESir: There is a curious parallel between the justifications offered for the death of Jean de Menezes and for the invasion of Iraq.If a police officer sincerely believes that I am carrying a bomb, then he may shoot me with impunity - even if the bomb turns out to be entirely illusory. The "incompetence, cynicism and misguided cover-up" (leading article, 18 August) with regard to the killing of Mr de Menezes applies equally to the whole political presentation of the war in Iraq.It is surely time for a return to more traditional values in our approach to the question of defending ourselves against threats. A good starting point would be the upholding of the rule of law and the notion of accountability.
Those responsible for the killing of Mr de Menezes should be held to account, as should the head of the Metropolitan Police and the Home Secretary.However beyond this we must now recognise that the other Blair must be held to account for his mendacity and manipulation in defining a threat, using selective and questionable evidence, and using this threat as a justification for undermining longstanding traditions of fairness, justice and liberty.As it is, we have created a culture in which it has proved a small step from attempting to legitimise imprisonment without trial or explanation to the killing of an innocent man. One grade, as now, would indicate an absolute achievement level with the second demonstrating, as used to be the case, a student's achievement relative to all others sitting that examination.DR MARK BISHOPREADER IN COMPUTING GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE, LONDONAnger over killing of an innocent manSir: National security has become the last refuge of the scoundrel. This decline was most apparent in mathematics, where staff had to provide remedial seminars, as many students lacked even the basic skills in algebra and calculus that an engineering-based technological subject required.Further, I have great sympathy for admissions tutors recruiting for heavily over-subscribed courses, as the current system makes it almost impossible to differentiate between strong students. I would like to propose an alternative A-level grading scheme and award students two grades for each subject. This makes it tempting to suggest a move to some kind of baccalaureate system - not necessarily to widen the range of subjects studied, but to include, alongside A-level-type work, some more general aptitude test which would be harder to teach for.Universities and employers could then decide what weighting to give to scores on such an aptitude test and on more traditional A-level-type assessments.DR MICHAEL MORRISREADER IN PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX BRIGHTONSir: When I was undergraduate admissions tutor for the Department of Cybernetics at Reading University, it was my firm opinion that, at least in science-based A-levels, standards had dropped significantly over the decade of my appointment as a lecturer there.