Universities have a duty to preserve, not deny, freedom of speech

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Strathclyde University has come under fire for 'banning' a pro-life society (Rex Features)

In a society that supposedly has free speech it is beyond belief that pro-life students should be likened to a radical political party and have their group banned by the university's students' association. It is quite remarkable and incredibly sad that in this day and age our universities, which are supposed to be the bastions of free thinking and liberal mindedness, should be transformed into centres for intolerant censorship.

Universities should be guardians of debate and challenging ideas, rather than banning people just because they don’t like their views, especially when those views seek to protect God-given life.

J Longstaff
Buxted

We shouldn’t praise Sweden too much over recycling

Sorry to burst this bubble on recycling being better in Sweden, but it's not as straightforward as it first appears.

In Sweden there is a legal duty for local authorities to feed heat to their district heating networks. This drives the best prices for waste wood biomass and refuse derived fuels (RDF) in Europe at the moment.

As always with waste-derived fuels, it is the market the drives behaviour and different countries are very different in how they see this. We in the UK have a phobia against burning waste. Our Swedish cousins can’t believe that we don’t do the same as them.

And when you look at our present energy issues it's hard to argue against that view. Maybe our nimby view of energy from waste should be revisited?

John Sinclair
Pocklington

Our education system is no closer to being fair

The private school (public school) sector may have been granted charitable status, but there is little charitable in the work it carries out. The offer to take in more “poor” children is only being made as a means of protecting that privileged position. They are a divisive force on our education system and falling for this ruse will only make matters worse.

As well as the income that HM Revenue & Customs is denied by this status, the taxpayer is also expected to fund the inflation proof pensions of the highly paid public school staff.

In an ideal world every child would have a right to equal educational opportunities, but the system we have in England and to a lesser extent in Scotland with selection based on religion, income, supposed testing at age 11, privately run profit-making academy trusts, etc, means we are moving further and further away from any such fairness.

Geoff Forward
Stirling

Human beings are not expendable in war

Every country has the right to defend itself but that right does not trump the human rights of anyone, anywhere. The idea that “defence” allows “collateral” damage is insidious and dangerous. No human being is expendable. The UK Government must put human rights ahead of arm sales, always and everywhere.

Jon Hawksley
London

Britain has become an insular place

It is not just the UK's academic reputation that has been trashed by Brexit. A cursory glance at foreign papers reveals an inward-looking, xenophobic and increasingly irrelevant Great Britain. Cool Britannia is no more. Our diplomatic capital has been spent and our economic strength looks shaky.

At a time when Middle Eastern instability has created human migration on a biblical scale, we need strength and friends. The current administration has neither.

Mark Grey
Covent Garden

Does this not solve the Brexit problem?

On first reading of the Verhofstadt proposal, could this be a way out of the Brexit immigration problem?

Our Government offers in return reciprocal UK citizenship for EU nationals – registration and counting, giving the Government “control” wanted by the Brexit lobby.

Dave Thomas
Bristol