SIR - On a recent afternoon our son was one of only seven children in his primary school class, making it impossible for the school to provide the usual curriculum. This was because about 24 children from the Year 6 class were attending interviews at Dixons City Technology College.

We have written to Estelle Morris - as Secretary of State for Education the person responsible for CTCs - to ask her why one school is allowed to cause so much disruption to others? If every secondary school in Bradford did the same, then Year 6 education would be in total chaos this term.

Also, can it be right for one school to be allocated vastly more resources than the others, resulting in huge numbers of parents seeking places there for their children and allowing that school to select the most motivated children? When will the Government have the courage to acknowledge that its policy of creating specialist schools is a mistake?

Instead of creating more inequality among secondary schools, why can't the Government aim to provide every parent with the option of a local neighbourhood comprehensive offering high standards across the whole curriculum?

Roger & Alison Smith, Thorncroft Road, Bradford 6

SIR - Mike Priestley was bang on (T&A, October 13) with his comments on changing climate. The future will be much wetter, windier and more extreme than we have been used to, and much of it is because of the way we live.

Our use of energy and production of waste will double in the next 25 years and the result will be more gales, storms, falling trees, flooding, rats and even droughts, and with sea levels rising by 300mm this century, there will be less Yorkshire for all of us.

Mike's grandson, Sam, won't thank us for the size of the insurance premiums he will have to pay and yet this will be nothing compared to the world-wide problems of drought and movements of starving people that will challenge all of us.

The three-year drought in Afghanistan is just a taste of the way it will be, and we aren't coping well with that.

Keep on nagging us to be more responsible, Mike, so that we learn to value the fragile planet that we now take for granted.

Councillor Keith Thomson (chairman, Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee), Heights Lane, Bradford 9.

SIR - I did not vote in favour of a trial postal vote scheme in Kirklees at last week's full Council meeting in Cleckheaton. My concern is that too much effort is spent trying to spoon-feed an increasingly apathetic population to take part.

If you are a woman, the voting right was given less than a century ago, in rented property not much longer. In most of the world there are no fair elections. We are privileged in this country, that free thinkers fought so hard over the centuries to give everyone, irrespective of income or gender, the right to choose who represents them.

The law was changed this year to give everyone the choice of voting by post. It has also brought in an electoral register that can be added to throughout the year.

I think it is sad that electoral staff have to spend so much time issuing reminders, calling on people who could not be bothered filling in their electoral details and issuing their name for a prize draw.

I seriously believe that if there was a box to tick which gave £1 back for forsaking the right to vote for a year, a large number would take the pound.

While the reasons are many why people don't take part, it is not reflected in the amount of casework I take up each year. Ironically, those who don't bother voting take up a larger amount of my time as a councillor than those who take part.

There is nothing wrong with the voting system. It is the electorate.

Nick Harvey (Green Party Councillor, Newsome Ward, Kirklees Council), Taylor Hill, Newsome, Huddersfield.

SIR - Looking back at the many catastrophes that have happened in this country over the last few years. (BSE, foot and mouth, riots etc) it makes me wonder if some, if not all, have been caused by a fifth column working on behalf of extremists to bring this country to its knees.

Any perpetrator irrespective of race, colour or creed has the backing of a legal system more in keeping with Monty Python's Flying Circus. The cost of this farce is helping to undermine the very foundations of the Great Britain we once were proud of.

I hate to think of what is in store for my children and grandchildren.

Trevor Williams-Berry, Bredon Avenue, Wrose

SIR - Listening to recent talk shows and interviews on local radio and television I have been horrified at the amount of anti-British and American statements being issued by ordinary citizens.

I wonder how the people who are making these supportive noises for bin Laden and the Taliban would like to live in a country that is ruled by fear and torture with no music, art, literature, cinema or television?

Do they support the oppression of women and a total ban on religious freedom? Would they be prepared to give up their hot hatchback cars, baseball caps and designer clothes? I think not.

After seeing a photograph of a Taliban "warrior" about to execute a terrified woman I cannot believe that any sane person living in this country, with all its freedom and tolerance, could approve of or want to live under such a regime.

Why, therefore, cannot we have some honest statements and more support for a war on international terrorism from every civilised country and person in the world whatever their colour, race or creed?

M. Wood, Westercroft View, Northowram

SIR - I have never written to a newspaper in 65 years but I feel I must answer Ayub Khan's letter of October 15.

1. No nun covers herself from head to toe, the face always shows, and not all nuns wear long dresses.

2. Only he seems to class Muslims with beards as extremists. I cannot say that I have ever heard anyone say that, because in the Orthodox Church all priests wear beards. I don't think they are classed as extremists.

3. Again I can't remember anyone ever saying that any child, Muslim or otherwise, who dedicates himself to his or her religion is a lost cause or a failure. Most people would think this a rather noble thing to do.

4. With regard to Christians, Jews, Hindus killing someone, religion does not come into it because our religions do not have, or declare, religious wars.

But we are living in a country where we do have a choice of what we wish to do, and there are a lot of Muslims who want to come to this country to live.

Get rid of the chip, Ayub. It seems to me a very big one!

Ken Brian, Clayton Road, Bradford.