Donald Trump has shown that anything is possible

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Donald Trump has drawn level with Hillary Clinton in recent weeks, according to the polls (Getty)

I cannot believe anyone with the slightest sense of sanity would trust Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States. I just can’t believe it.

It is like watching a comedian trying to make the audience laugh. I cannot believe the media is taking him seriously.

The man is not real. It is like a fictional character. Perhaps what we are witnessing isn’t real election madness. We are duped. We are being hypnotised. We are being deceived into believing something which isn’t real.

In one way, he has encouraged me not to give up in life. If a man like him has managed to make billions, then, anyone else can try. And if a confused character like him can become the president of the United States, even Homer Simpson can.

He is the embodiment of President Obama’s famous phrase of “yes we can”. Yes we can no matter how the odds are against us. Yes we can achieve anything.

Perhaps Trump has been sent to instil hope to the hopeless. No need to look down upon yourself. Yes, you can accomplish anything. If Trump can achieve so much, everyone else can.

Abubakar Kasim
Toronto

There is a correlation between smart uniform and attainment

I'm currently in Kyrgyzstan, one of the poorest countries in Central Asia. Last week saw the start of the new school year, with the streets full of children on their way to school, carrying flowers for their teachers. Most people in Kyrgyzstan live on incomes far below the UK, raising families on an annual income less than the cost of a second-hand car in the UK. But all the children are immaculately turned out: white shirt or blouse, black skirt or trousers, white tights for the girls. For parents, it is a matter of pride, respect for the school and for their society. You probably won't be surprised to learn that the country has a very high literacy. Could there be a connection?

Tom Callaghan
Address supplied

How can Theresa May guarantee that working class children will go to grammar school?

How will Theresa May's assurances that she intends to introduce measures that ensure that the new Grammar Schools will take a proportion of children from deprived backgrounds work? Presumably those from deprived families will have to pass the entrance exam for entry to a Grammar School? As we know the damage has already been done before secondary education and so only a few are likely to meet the criteria for entry. Unless Mrs May intends to set quotas so that a fixed proportion are allowed into the new schools. This would mean accepting pupils from deprived backgrounds with lower scores and rejecting others with higher scores. Well, I can see the middle classes putting up with that. Unfortunately selective education is a zero sum game.

Chris Elshaw
Headley Down

The BBC has made the right choice imposing the TV Licence on iPlayer viewers

We should congratulate the BBC on closing the legal loophole which has previously allowed the small minority of British households to watch iPlayer without possession of that illustrious document, the Television Licence.

In particular we should commend them for the means by which they are enforcing this Law, in that every iPlayer viewer, in affirmative response to the question of current licence possession, is immediately given passage to the desired viewing content, without requiring confirmatory current licence details – nor even name or address.

However, it was rather disappointing to see that, for those who must now purchase a licence, the BBC does not include an option recognising those whose only desire is to watch iPlayer in monochrome: iPlayer viewers for whom a colour licence is clearly inappropriate. But, although this omission represents a further loophole that should promptly be addressed.

David Anderson
Dundee

School blazers should be banned

Amidst the condemnations/congratulations to the Kent Headmaster who insisted upon the pupils should wear precisely the uniform items as described - with no deviation from the list of approved garments and footwear - I should like to put forward the following; why do children have to have embroidered school-crest logos on their clothes? Why the expense of having to source from a limited set of retailers? What contribution does branding make to a child's education? If they are out on a school trip and need to be identified as a group (which should be obvious from the colours of the garments) then issue tabards with the school logo printed clearly upon them.

Whilst within school grounds, the children merely need to be wearing comfortable clothing appropriate to the weather conditions, PE environment or playground. In the science laboratory I can agree that enclosed shoes, made of a non-flammable textile, might be advisable. I fully comprehend why "fashion" additions in the form of foot-crippling shapes, or raised heels, and even tassels, large buckles or long shoe laces can cause injury – but why not single-coloured training shoes? Surely by now, the link between rigid soled shoes providing "support" to children's growing bodies has been superseded by sport shoe technology?

My final appeal is to all school governors, academy administrators and local authority councillors is to have blazers outlawed. What a stupid item of clothing! They are not as warm as fleeces or jumpers in the winter and in the summer they are destined to become lost property – with many left over the backs of chairs in assorted classrooms. Blazers are often badly tailored (one size fits none) and look like clown jackets if bought to include "growing room" and even more ridiculous when sleeves are too short or the shoulder width is too tight to allow free movement.

Worse is the fact that they are gender specific! Most blazers cost more than a decent pair of leather shoes – definitely if they have coloured linings, ribbon braid or an embroidered school crest on the pockets. Laundry is an issue if the blazers are wool-based. The pockets are the wrong size for notebooks or pencil cases and the inner pocket (which may have a zippered fixing, or not) is not reinforced to take dinner money.

If anyone wished to design a more superfluous item of clothing I'd like to meet them. It is an insult to expect parents to pay almost a whole day's minimum wage salary annually for a non-raincoat. I guarantee that not a single pupil will lament their demise.

Carole Anne Benton
Bexhill-on-Sea

How is renegotiating a deal with Australia an achievement?

Much has been made of the possibility of a post-Brexit UK negotiating a "free trade deal" with Australia.

Quite apart from the ambivalence shown by Australian ministers, is it not the case that the EU already has such a deal in place?

Can anyone explain why having to renegotiate an agreement upon leaving the EU is hailed as an achievement?

Peter Brown
Kingston upon Thames