Cartoon by John Sadler www.johnsadlerillustration.com

• THREE of the teaching assistants at our nearby primary school are retiring, (Tears as primary school loses long-serving staff it cannot afford to replace, June 20).

Together they have worked there for more than a century. Their posts will not be refilled because our primary school, Eleanor Palmer in Tufnell Park, lacks the money to do so.

Say it slowly and think what that means. The government says our country hasn’t got enough money to pay teaching assistants at primary schools.

Think what these teaching assistants did, think of the ways they helped the children to start school, to start to learn when our young children were scared of this unfamiliar place, a school, the children who are our future.

If we could arouse, awaken, our government, we could ask them how come. Our government can be relied on to say there is no money, these are hard times, though they had enough money to bail out the banks and bankers, none of whom went to prison remember.

They had money to spend reimbursing private owners for removing and replacing flammable cladding from their flats though they have no money to pay to make safe three-quarters of council-owned flats.

As we all know, this government, our government, the government we voted into power, is starving local authorities of funds.

No chance, even if we shouted loud enough, we’d awaken this government, I doubt we’d even awaken our so-called opposition. This Tory government is asleep at the wheel and the Labour Party doesn’t oppose them either.

DR MARTIN ROSENDAAL
Laurier Road, NW5