Letters: Scotland’s gender law doesn’t add up

Scottish muddle

Sir: The Scottish Sentencing Council guidelines, introduced last year, affirm research as showing that young people, defined in the guidelines as those up to 25 years of age, ‘are not fully developed and may not have attained full maturity’ (‘Gender wars’, 21 January). As a result they are seen as less able to exercise good judgment; are more vulnerable to external influences; may be less able to assess the implications of their decisions; and may take more risks. However, Scottish people nine years younger than that, faced with the complex experience of perceiving their bodily habitus to be at odds with their sense of their gender, are judged fully ready to make permanent, legally binding, life-altering decisions independent of any external advice or assessment. It seems that maturity in Scotland is less a matter of objective reality and more one of political expediency.

Dr M. Jamieson

Glasgow

Build more grammars

Sir: David Kynaston, reviewing the book A Revolution Betrayed, seems unenthusiastic about grammar schools (Books, 21 January). This attitude is far too prevalent among those fortunate enough to have been educated privately. That includes Kynaston himself, and the leading members of the Conservative party. There were some specific problems with the old system; in particular, borderline cases were not handled well. But the vast majority of pupils were correctly assigned. If the Conservative party wants to build a blue wall, it will have to open new grammar schools there.

Michael Gorman

Remote learning

Sir: David Kynaston says I am ‘indifferent’ to doing something about the privilege of fee-charging schools. Far from it. But I would oppose a totalitarian state, the only form of government which could or would abolish them. Hence my desire (clearly stated in my book) to see them put gradually out of business – or transformed – in a free society by academically selective grammar schools.