It is important that stark regional inequalities and the resulting impacts on people and communities that exist across our country are recognised and responded to (“There’s no life here at all: a journey to the heartlands of Britain’s future”, News, last week). In the case of Ebbw Vale and the towns of the adjoining valleys, the communities grew as a result of the minerals of the area and the resulting coal and steel industries. These have now gone, so it is necessary to identify the assets that can provide the basis for a new future. Most important among these are the people.

James Bloodworth rightly highlights the need for continued investment in education and skills. The warmth and welcoming nature of the communities is also an asset in itself. So, too, is the striking landscape, investment in road and rail connections to cities such as Newport, Cardiff and Bristol, and the area’s heritage.

For the future, skills investment, infrastructure and measures to address health issues are clearly of vital importance. But so, too, is developing a new narrative and helping to build confidence and aspiration. Fantastic things are happening in and around Ebbw Vale through the effort, passion and commitment of local people and organisations. These include the international award-winning Green Valley Films and associated community film project Made in Tredegar, the multiplicity of arts, training and other activity run by the Ebbw Vale Institute, the Market Hall cinema in Brynmawr, which is the oldest in Wales and run as a community enterprise, and the construction of an aeroplane by Coleg Gwent students.

As with all places, the future lies in providing local people with the capacity to take and create opportunities and also in its discovery by new people and the energy and ideas they can bring.

Mel Clinton

Cheddar, Somerset

First-past-the-post blues



John Naughton (“‘Weaponised’ social media isn’t Brexit’s smoking gun”, New Review, last week) is right to point up the relationship between voting systems and political outcomes.

It’s not fanciful to equate the shoddy first-past-the-post system with Trump and Brexit: a disempowered electorate will be more likely to kick out against the political classes. Only the US and UK use first-past-the-post. No new country, and no other country in the EU, has opted for this electoral system.

One of the issues with it is the number of “wasted” votes, votes which do not contribute to a result, something that single transferable votes in multi-member constituencies does away with. Ireland and Northern Ireland use this system. The Electoral Reform Society calculates that 68% of votes were wasted in the last general election and in five constituencies, over 90% of votes were wasted.

One of the benefits of any proportional system is that it gives voice and representation to minor parties. This produces higher turnouts, more political parties and more activism.

Jim McCallum

Leicester

Children’s privacy at risk



We write to warn that a new data collection will put schoolchildren in England at lifelong risk from next month. The government must pause, rethink and put children’s best interests first.

The Department for Education will collect reasons why children move from mainstream school into alternative provision education. Those sensitive reasons include a mental or physical health need, pregnancy, and whether a child moved to a young offender institution. These labels will be added to a child’s named record in the National Pupil Database, which now holds the personal confidential data of over 23 million people without their knowledge or consent.

Data released to more than 1,000 third parties since March 2012 have not been anonymous and already include details of special educational needs when given away, even for commercial re-use. While the government talks about giving children’s personal data special protections, and privacy by design, its actions do not. We must see safeguards put in place to uphold children’s rights, aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and our Human Rights Act.

We appreciate the importance of understanding these children’s education, often “managed out” from mainstream school to boost league table results. But this knowledge should not cost any child their confidentiality. If the department cannot stop the distribution of identifying data for indirect purposes, and commit to the rights of the child, the government should not collect the data at all.

Alliance for Inclusive Education

Biometrics in Schools

The Campaign for State Education



John Carr, secretary, Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety

defenddigitalme

Driver Youth Trust

Dr Pam Jarvis, chartered psychologist

Dr Ansgar Koene, senior research Fellow, University of Nottingham

Professor Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science

Professor Berry Mayall, Professor of Childhood Studies, UCL

medConfidential

Royal Mencap Society

The National Education Union (NUT section)

The Parents Union

Parent Zone

Rescue Our Schools

Joseph Savirimuthu, senior lecturer in Law at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool

Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge ExchangeTrailblazers (mentoring young offenders)

Selling Britain by the pound



Readers of an older vintage must be astonished by the relaxed way that today’s pundits treat hostile takeovers (“Is the global desire to buy British a bad thing for our tech sector?”, Business, last week). At one time, losing a famous British name or prized bit of tech would have been a cause for national concern. Today’s airy unconcern probably derives from Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson’s desire to have a bonfire of our national assets to fund tax cuts and win elections.

Germany has a slightly different system, in which the major stakeholders in a company have enough votes to ward off foreign takeovers and where there are commercial banks eager to support German companies. Perhaps it also has a greater culture of patriotism in its politicians. Tottenham Hotspur may need to sell to survive. The fifth richest country in the world should not be in that position.

David Redshaw

Gravesend, Kent