21 APRIL 2001, Page 30

Common misunderstanding

From Mr Paul Giles Sir: John Major takes Alastair Campbell to task for describing comprehensive schools as 'bog-standard' (`Vote Labour — if you want to be ruled by lies', 7 April).

I suspect that in the south-east of England they never use the expression, but where I come from, in the north-west, and presumably where Mr Campbell comes from, it is used with no pejorative sense whatsoever. It simply means completely standard: `common-or-garden' would be an exact synonym.

The rest of Mr Major's article is powerfully expressed and right in every respect, but we shouldn't criticise the odious crew for a misunderstanding.

Paul Giles

3010 Kessel-Lo. Belgium