Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

Welcome to ‘Letters From A Tory’, covering British politics from a conservative perspective. Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts about today’s letter, and don’t forget that you can CLICK HERE to get my letters sent to you by RSS every morning.Dear Ed Balls,
Much as I’d like to send a congratulatory letter [...]

“The real danger is not third-hand smoke but propaganda dressed up as science”
- Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, after a study in America found that lingering residue from tobacco smoke which clings to upholstery, clothing and the skin releases cancer-causing agents.   Berkeley scientists in the US ran lab tests and found “substantial [...]

Dear David Willetts,
Nice to have you back on the front pages after assuming a relatively quiet role over the past year or so.  As the Conservative Party is about to release a Green Paper on the family, now is a good time to raise two questions: have the Conservatives got the right policies on families, [...]

From the BBC:
Some 250,000 11 to 17-year-olds in England are risking skin cancer by using sunbeds, a charity warns.  A government-funded study of more than 9,000 children found 6% had used a sunbed and in some areas of the country 40% of teenagers used them every week.  Writing in the British Medical Journal, Cancer Research [...]

From the Telegraph:
Adults who look after friends’ children on a regular basis are being forced to register with Ofsted under new legislation.  They must complete a criminal record check, learn first aid, take a childcare course and even follow Labour’s “nappy curriculum” for under-fives. …It comes just weeks after it emerged that parents giving lifts [...]

From the Telegraph:
The everyday use of stickers by teachers to reward their pupils’ good behaviour is beginning to backfire, new research has revealed.
The “achievements” now deemed by schools to merit reward badges include good work, sitting quietly, finishing lunch and putting used tissues in the bin. Reward stickers are even recommended by the Department [...]

Dear Jo Swinson,
I know that Silly Season is upon us and pretty much any story, no matter how ridiculous, can get into the news.  Even so, I would have thought that the Lib Dems would be keen to avoid making themselves look like prats during this relatively quiet period.  I was wrong.  It appears as [...]

From the Guardian:
Teen pregnancy and disease rates rose sharply during Bush years, agency finds

Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush’s evangelically-driven education policy, according to a new report by the US’s major public health body.  In a [...]

Dear David Cameron,
While I take no issue with your liberal views on homosexuality that have been rightly welcomed by many people, your apparent change of heart on the now infamous ‘Section 28′ is not something that I can subscribe to.  Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which stated that a local authority “shall [...]

Dear Elizabeth Adeney,
At 66 years of age, you are set to become Britain’s oldest first-time mother in about a month or so from now.  Having undergone IVF treatment in the Ukraine, there has been criticism of your actions on the basis of your age, but you have robustly defended yourself by telling the Sunday Mirror [...]

Dear Ed Balls,
There is something unbelievably cheeky about yesterday’s release of a government report by Sir Alan Steer into the appalling standards of behaviour in our schools, seeing as Labour have ignored the issue for a decade.  The number of children excluded more than 10 times in a single year went up from 310 in [...]

Dear Mary Helen Immordino-Yang,
My initial reaction when I saw the headline suggesting that digital media such as Twitter and Facebook might damage our sense of morality was that it was another bunch of scientists desperate for their 15 seconds of fame who had come up with some crackpot evidence to support their ideas.  While this [...]

“Their name will be with them for life and what may be quirky and fun for a toddler might be regretted terribly when that person becomes older or even a grandparent perhaps.”
- a spokesman for thebabywebsite.com, reacting to the unfortunate names that some parents have thrust upon their children according to the website’s researchers.  The [...]

Dear Jeremy Hunt,
It’s fair to say that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is not the most highly respected organisation in media circles.  Newspapers consider it more of an obstacle than anything else.  As Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, I wondered if you had any plans to do anything about this, especially in light of the media frenzy over [...]

“Nobody wants to set up Alfie as a role model, or to celebrate what’s happened. At the same time, people have a lot of sympathy with him. It’s a moral dilemma”
- Phil Hall, former editor of the News of the World, suggesting that Alfie Patten (the 12-year-old now paraded as the father of his own child) [...]

I don’t know whether to feel anger or sympathy – angry that Alfie Patten, age 12, and Chantelle Steadman, age 15, are so stupid that they think it’s appropriate for them to raise a child, angry that their parents haven’t bothered to explain to them why they shouldn’t do something so irresponsible, or sympathy for the child who [...]

Dear Alan Johnson,
You recently described David Cameron as ”likeable”, “articulate” and “a nice guy” - hardly the usual slate of lame insults that Labour throw at the leader of the opposition.  You also mentioned that “I am sure he is genuine about the NHS”, which will certainly separate him from you.  David Cameron believes in personal responsibility and [...]

Dear Jacqui Smith,
You want to see “every child living their lives free from fear.”  Hard to disagree with your sentiment, although your policy is likely to suffer from the law of unintended consequences.  Allowing parents to ask if someone close to their family is a sex offender has an appealing simplicity to it and thankfully falls short of [...]

Dear Diane Ber,
I’m sure it hurts a lot, with your daughter having died at the tender age of 17.  I’m not in any way surprised that you are considering legal action against your NHS Trust and school because your daughter’s school didn’t inform you that she had been suffering from heart palpitations shortly before she was [...]

Everyone knows how much trauma can be inflicted on a child throughout their time at school purely on the basis of having a weird first name or surname, but some parents really do have it in for their kids.

“I am sad to think of children growing up believing that all Christmas means is the latest iPod or mobile phone”
- Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe

Dear readers,
Please be advised that this particular children’s toy is probably not a wise purchase this Christmas.

If children play with this toy and tell you they are ’seeing things’, they’re not lying!
A.Tory

Dear Ed Balls,
Are you beginning to see how Labour have failed society?  For all your talk of rising ’standards’ and investment in education, the truth of the matter is that children in this country are suffering and no longer feel safe.  Anxiety and childhood are a dangerous mixture that can have serious consequences when the [...]

Dear David Willetts,
It looks very much like your Childhood Inquiry will provide many excellent headlines today and will continue to focus on where Labour have let the country down, so a big congratulations to you.
One of the many losers from Labour’s bureaucracy culture has been the children in this country.  Schools are snowed under by [...]

Dear Alan Johnson,
I read through the articles about the effect of additives with great interest this morning.  It is yet another piece of scientific evidence that some additives from food and drinks can lead to hyperactive behaviour in children, in addition to huge amounts of the previous anecdotal evidence.  So what are you going to [...]