25 AUGUST 2001, Page 27

School politics

From Mr Stephen Miller Sir: Two days into the new school term and I am in despair. My 14-year-old daughter was reading out a critical essay on a poem about a pigeon to the rest of her class, She made the point that the jerking head movements of the bird, vividly described in the poem, put her in mind of some kind of mental problem. With all the confidence bestowed by the tyranny of the majority, one of her fellow pupils shouted out, `Aw, that's racist.' It really is hard to see a way Out of the predicament society now finds itself in.

Stephen Miller

Edinburgh