James Williams is always a good read, "Making sense of it", The Argus, March 30. 

Being born in 1941, I was caught up in Labour's revolution of their 1948 Education Act, with the system of grammar and secondary schools.

True to form, Labour then wanted to tear it up, as soon as they started implementing the Act, wanting just comprehensive schools.

And it has been the same ever since, with one reform after another.

But we still have the failings within our education system that we always had.

It depended on the local education authorities and their political leanings.

The looney left of the northern red wall really highlighted how bad education could be run.

A prime example was Stanmer School, purposely built in the 1950s as a comprehensive school with an intake of well over 1200 students.

Being newly-built, an experienced headmaster was selected.

His aim was to style the school, on the well-tried and tested grammar school model, where discipline was the key to its success.

He did his mandatory four years, then handed the reins over to the next incoming head, a liberal.

Children needed to be respected. So there was no discipline.

The standards fell, and no matter what was done, it had a bad reputation. Now it is a football car park.

It is all down to political priorities.  

Like our NHS, it is down to the priorities of those that run the hospitals.

With so many failing hospitals, it will depend on the doctors that run their departments.

We have had parliament agreeing that cannabis substances can now be used by patients that could benefit from its use.

But it is not prescribed to those patients as pain relief, because doctors will not prescribe any form of cannabis. Yet they will prescribe morphine as a painkiller.

It is down to priorities, Labour don’t like grammar schools and want to get rid of them. Tories love them and want to build more.

Spencer Carvil

Egginton Road

Brighton