Letters: August 13, 2016

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Grammar school points

IT WAS inevitable that Theresa May’s public support for more grammar schools would encourage ill-informed, fact-free Adver letters backing her stance.

This time it was the turn of JD Lancashire all the way from Warminster to oblige.

In JD’s letter no fact is too unimportant to be wrong on.

So: “Grammar schools were abolished in the 1960s by the Labour Party.”

Yet grammar schools, together with the associated paraphernalia for rejecting children continue to this day.

Thatcher signed off the conversion of more grammar schools to become comprehensives than the previous Labour Governments had.

“Grammar schools provided a leg up from poorer backgrounds.”

No they didn’t. They entrenched social divisions, admitting disproportionately fewer poor children and failing a disproportionately high number of poor children who did manage to get in. All with disproportionately high funding.

“May’s decision is not based on ideology.”

Yes it is, as was the original decision to include rigid selection of children enshrined in the 1944 Education act.

“Britain needs a broad mix of schools.”

No, “Britain” – or rather, children in Britain, need good, well-resourced local schools, with qualified teachers, which provide a broad range of educational experiences for all children.

“Britain needs maximum choice for parents.”

No, see comment above, plus what on Earth do grammar schools have to do with parental choice anyway?

PETER SMITH

Woodside Avenue

Swindon

....

Links within language

SINCE I was a child I have heard people in Swindon and Wiltshire in general who were born here and are mostly of the older generation use the term “hey up” or possibly said as “ay up” or even “ay oop”.

During my short period “inside”, or the railway works, it was fairly common for a someone watching his mate struggle with a task while believing that he could do better to suddenly exclaim, “hey up” which meant “let the fox see the rabbit” or “let me have a bash”.

More often than not it was pronounced with a distinct w on the front of it leading to a pronunciation of “whey up”.

There seems to be a distinct link between Wiltshire and Yorkshire in its usage, unless someone knows differently.

I have heard it used quite frequently in the television series All Creatures Great And Small and more recently in Heartbeat, which were both set in Yorkshire.

Indeed in Heartbeat the police were sometimes heard to say, “hey, what’s going on here then?” and quite often “hey up” as an expression of surprise.

I suspect that the derivation of the term originated from Anglo Saxon farming communities that established most of the agriculture in this country, and of course there is the shire link between the two counties.

After a bit of research I managed to find out that a hey is a very old British unit of weight consisting of 16 individual stones each of 16 imperial pounds in weight, which squares up to a 256lbs dry goods weight in total.

This then made me consider that when hay bales were unloaded from farm carts in the not too distant past, the farm hand doing the unloading with his pitchfork might have shouted a warning of “hey up” so as to prevent any of his fellow workers from getting a direct hit in the side of the “lug hole”, and thus being rendered senseless for the rest of the day by something weighing a hefty 256lbs.

Presumably they would need a good dollop of cider after that to kill the pain.

Therefore, it would seem possible that the word “hey” may be a corrupt form of the word “hay”, in reference to the approximate weight of a standard hay bale in those days.

Interestingly enough, there is another use of the word “hey” predominantly in Yorkshire and the North of England where it is sometimes preceded by the word “whey”, which does fit in with the Wiltshire usage as I mentioned above.

However, the combined use of these two words does not seem to be prevalent in Wiltshire.

Seemingly, the expression “whey hey” is a term of excitement or delight in Yorkshire, and an example that springs to mind is when a gentleman has been chatting to a pretty young lady, while being closely observed by one of his mates who after the encounter would exclaim: “Whey hey, I think you might be in with a chance there, mate.”

To elaborate, he had evidently perceived by careful observation that there could quite possibly be the start of some sort of lasting relationship in the offing, provided his mate played his cards right, and watched his “Ps and Qs” so to speak.

Of course, there are surely many other examples, which would take too long to enter into here. However, there does seem to be a distinct Wiltshire, Yorkshire link.

G A WOODWARD

Nelson Street

Swindon

....

Correspondence query

Re: “Too many men’s letters.” (Adver, August 11)

“I get annoyed at the number of letters accepted for printing from men.”

Wow! Deary me! Is it the editor’s fault if few or no women respond to the Adver’s letters column?

Furthermore, as for Beth feeling so strongly about the subject, it’s a shame she doesn’t have the basic courtesy of revealing her full name.

Or are we meant to take her letter as tongue-in-cheek, as I suspect?

STEVE NIBBS

Milton Rd

Swindon

....

Members set to strike

HOW dare members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union vote to go on strike?

Can someone please advise them that this is only allowed under a Labour Government? Disgusting.

J ADAMS

Bloomsbury

Swindon