Teachers and their unions are right to be wary of the government given their track record during this crisis

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Teachers and their union representatives have every right to be wary of government efforts to get them back into the classroom without due attention to their safety.

Many are no doubt looking at the total failure to exercise a duty of care towards health and care workers.

Teachers in state schools also must wonder why, if it is so safe to return, some of their counterparts in public schools are not doing so until September.

Yes, children do need to get back to school. Being locked at home, often in cramped conditions, is no good for anyone. But staff and children can only go back when it us demonstrably safe to do so.

Paul Donovan
London

Allowing for the fact that our Covid-19 experience is unprecedented – as we are constantly and unnecessarily reminded – I find Dr Jenny Harries’ comments regarding the return to school unfathomable.

She said: “We think children probably have the same level of infections, we’re just coming through that data now with the ONS [Office for National Statistics] survey, but they definitely don’t get as ill ... For younger children as well, evidence is still growing but there may be some evidence there that they are less likely to pass it on.”

That last point is concerning. The government wishes to send young children back to school in June but is as yet uncertain as to the potential for transmission. There may be some evidence, Dr Harries? Let’s follow that science, shall we?

These young children, who may or may not be less likely to pass on the virus, may have parents or other household members who are at risk because of underlying conditions.

It is astonishing that the government has not devised a more considered approach to recovery. It feels as though they are firefighting rather than planning. A slower and more partial approach, allowing two to three weeks to monitor results, would allow us to then assess any impact.

I understand the economic imperative but this seems recklessly desperate.

Beryl Wall
London

I would not trust anything Michael Gove says after he said that teaching assistants in schools should do it voluntarily.

I work in a special needs school, I would like him to do my job for a week.

Louise Weston
Address supplied

Large sections of the media are right behind the government, and are labelling teachers and the teaching unions "cowards" for fighting what they consider a risky and premature re-opening of schools.

Perhaps if MPs were to allow their own children and grandchildren to be the first cohort to return to school we’d have a little more faith in their rhetoric.

Until then, I suggest we listen to those who know what they’re talking about.

Paul Halas
Stroud

Immigration anger

I almost choked on my morning tea when reading the lead article of a demand by Tory MPs to “soften the immigration rules”.

How dare they! The same immigrants from around the world who have been vilified, abused and made to feel most unwelcome in all of the poisonous and putrid Brexit language in the last few years, now all of a sudden should be welcomed back.

I am genuinely sick to the pit of my stomach with the the sheer insensitivity and callousness of this concept. But then again, from this government, why am I surprised?

The UK put itself here; it should now at least have the decency to look to recruit from within and accept that this is the price it must pay for the climate it has created – especially over Brexit.

Jay Boyce
Birmingham

A charge too far

I agree with your editorial regarding Priti Patel and her decision to maintain the immigration health surcharge even for NHS staff (Priti Patel must explain why she is keeping this divisive and unfair tax).

Indeed, I think the first people she should explain this to are Jenny McGee from New Zealand and Luis Pitarma, orginally from Portugal, who are working to save lives including that of our prime minister.

This should be done in person in front of the nation on television, and she should be accompanied by Boris Johnson. Let them convince us how much they really support the staff for whom they clap with the rest of us every Thursday.

Deborah Everett
Manchester

HS2 workers

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has raised issues over costs of HS2.

One way to contain costs on such vital infrastructure projects is to link the receipt of furlough with having to do some work on such vital UK-wide infrastructure such as HS2.

That way costs are contained, the UK economy is served and the taxpayer receives a return from the outlay on the furlough.

John Barstow
Pulborough​