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Support for school

I wish to comment on the articles in your paper on 7th and 8th September. I applaud George Croxford’s actions in regards his stand on school uniform at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy.

Standards in life are a very important lesson to learn in life and for our society in general, with 1900 pupils in the academy you must have rules, you cannot let rules be disobeyed one day and enforced the next; without rules anarchy will take over.

Plenty of notice was given therefore it was fair. If a child had missed their bus due to detention I am sure that if they went back in to school and explained the problem it would be resolved.

With regards to conduct cards I also agree with the academy, they are not the first to introduce them, I am sure they will not be the last. Behaviour standards are important as is discipline, without it what happens to society? Standards have been allowed to drop for far too long. George Croxford runs a very large and successful school, he achieves this because he and his team have standards.

Chris Wannell, Royal Wootton Bassett

Get priorities right

It seems that Swindon is to get a new day centre for the homeless, based at the Riverside Centre in Queens Drive. It will include a temporary winter hostel for rough sleepers. £194,000 of central government funding will help with the cost of running the day centre and the project is to run for three years.

But it was less than a week ago that Swindon Council was saying how proud it was to have sold 73 council houses during the last year by offering even larger discounts for Right-to-Buy residents.

It appears that civilization is going backwards in Britain. We are the fifth richest country in the world but we take it as normal that the number of homeless families and rough sleepers is expected to rise during the next few years.

Britain has got its priorities all wrong. The priority should be to get all working class families into decent permanent accommodation providing a salubrious environment for young children to flourish and grow.

Martin Costello, Eldene, Swindon

Shoppers see sense

PETA and other animal advocates are celebrating the announcement that, after more than a decade of campaigns against Burberry’s use of fur, the iconic British brand has now joined Armani, Versace, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood, and Stella McCartney in banning fur from its collections.

This decision is a sign of the times, as today’s shoppers are seeing fur for what it is: the skin of animals who were caged and electrocuted or bludgeoned to death or caught in steel traps and often left to die slowly from blood loss – which is the way that coyotes are still being killed for the frivolous trim on Canada Goose’s jackets. The few fashion houses refusing to modernise and listen to the overwhelming public opinion against fur are now sticking out like a sore thumb for all the wrong reasons. If they want to stay relevant in a changing industry, they have no choice but to stop using fur stolen from animals for their coats, collars, and cuffs.

Jennifer White, PETA UK, London