I WAS very surprised that the column by Bill Hearld (Nanny state is teaching us to lose, August 31) was following Michael Howard's line on the basis of the British performance at the Olympics when the results of our team proved exactly the opposite.

There were outstanding performances by Kelly Holmes, who acknowledged gracefully that the time spent at York's Fulford Barracks had helped in the final result, and the extraordinary feats of 17-year-old Bolton hero Amir Khan, who just missed a boxing gold in the final.

I also object to his ill-informed criticism of the legal profession because I was a former member. In the past, before no-win no-fee cases were allowed, miners and workers in the York carriage works could not afford litigation against their employers however negligent they may have been.

As for education, my grandchildren attend school in Wiltshire and the West Midlands, and together with the ones I know in York, are not as depicted in his article and it is foolish to generalise on the basis of anecdotal evidence.

Richard O Whiting,

Redman Close, York.

Updated: 09:43 Friday, September 03, 2004