MUCH-maligned Tadcaster, home to three large breweries, is not noted for handing out advice to its so-called elders and betters - whoever they may be.

But the advice given to a headmaster many years ago by the then-owner of one of our local breweries would have been helpful to today's parliamentarians in these uncertain times.

According to Chris Titley's Yesterday Once More (January 4, 1999) the brewery owner "ruefully" told the headmaster... "let that be a lesson to you. Never sign a letter without reading it."

If some of those now in high places had received the same wise counsel, maybe some alleged wrong-doers could have avoided fierce criticism from people mindful of those pearls of wisdom from Tadcaster all those years ago.

So, in the old days Tadcaster was not as inwardly-looking as some of our detractors would have us believe.

Ida Mary Goodrick,

Woodlands Avenue, Tadcaster.

Updated: 12:10 Tuesday, March 19, 2002