I read with amusement your article on April 1 about the City Council's proposal to cover the city with a dome, being alert for April Fool spoofs on that day.

Imagine my surprise to find the spoof stories continuing into the following week with your article regarding placing a computer in the home of every primary school child in York.

I thought that it was just another late April Fool's joke from the Labour Party.

However, having just received a copy of their election wish list I find that they are serious.

It is an ambitious plan, not yet costed and again highlights the many ways this Labour group wastes the York rate-payer's money.

The money would be better spent fulfilling their 1997 election pledge to reduce class sizes, and providing improved computer facilities in all the schools in York, where children can learn computer skills in a controlled environment.

Ken Creek,

Conservative Agent,

City of York Conservative Party,

Ash Street,

York.

...I'm extremely worried about York council's flagrant waste of our money.

They are proposing to give every primary school a child computer for their home. It would cost £4 million to implement this policy with 8,200 children of primary school age in York.

I'm sure children at this age would be better off learning how to read and write rather than playing on computers. Why not use the money for books so children can learn the skills they really need at this age? If you are going to provide pupils with computers, give them to secondary school children, who will find them more useful.

It seems the Labour Party, as usual, is more interested in the soundbite and the headline rather than the interests of York children.

Stuart Anson,

Alma Terrace,

Fulford.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.