Can you imagine a less likely Lennon fan than Liz Truss?

In today’s MetroTalk, readers are sharing their thoughts on Liz Truss’s memoir, Ten Years To Save The West.

Funnily enough, it’s not her conservative views or some of other, more, mundane musings, that have left readers puzzled, but her love for left-wing Beatle, John Lennon. The member who famously proposed no war, no religion and said, his song ‘Imagine’ was ‘virtually, The Communist Manifesto’.

Meanwhile, should a secular school be obligated to provide a prayer room for its students and if not, why? A teen smoking ban, and one reader and proud mother of a transman, says women have ‘actual rising dangers’ to worry about.

Share what you think about these topics and more in the comments.

John Lennon would be 'woke' by Liz's standards

John Lennon is anti-‘woke’ zealot Liz Truss’s favourite Beatle (Metro, Thu)?

Hang on a sec! Lennon was a left-wing peace campaigner who advocated civil and social justice. He opposed US involvement in Vietnam and befriended the Black Panthers.

He also wanted to build a world with no countries, nothing to kill or die for and no religion. How ‘woke’ is that? Mat, Manchester

I have no intention of buying failed former PM Liz Truss’s book Ten Years To Save The West, but I might be tempted to when I see it for 10p in a charity shop. Mark Iles, Newark

Rishi’s teen tobacco ban

We’re in a mess. We’ve ruined things for future generations already. There must be something we can do to make things a little less desperate for our kids’ future?

So, what does the government do? Stop current 14/15-year-olds – and younger – from ever smoking.

Good idea. In 60 years’ time, when shopkeepers won’t serve them because they don’t look 75, let’s deny them that calming ciggie when they’re furious about having to work to 80 to get their state pension. Sorry, kids. Steve Maloney, Merseyside

While I agree that a total smoking/vape ban would improve the nation’s health and reduce costs within the NHS, it would seem to be a gift to the people running 
the country’s illegal drug economy. 
That’s an untaxed business model the police don’t seem motivated to address any more. Don Trower, Braintree

Have we become a nanny state?

By banning tobacco for adults of certain ages, the government, with support from Labour, has introduced a divisive piece of legislation that allows one adult to buy tobacco but not another. So much for equality!

We have become a nanny state where we are being told what we can do and, even in some cases, what we can say.

This goes back to the repressive Covid laws, when the government acted in a way not dissimilar to North Korea’s.

Once those in power had tasted such dictatorial rule, they felt emboldened to use it again whenever they needed. Ian Bentley, Pudsey

Muslim prayer cannot be ‘done in one’s head’

On the subject of the Muslim student failing in her High Court bid to overturn a school’s ban on prayer time, I had been hoping to save my words, but so much absolute ignorance has forced me to act.

I suppose it is partly the fault of our own Muslim community that ideas by the likes of Arjun and Martin (MetroTalk, Thu), who support the ban, have been allowed to exist – so let me make things clearer.

The Muslim prayer is obligatory five times a day and consists of movements such as prostration and bowing.

As well as this, prayer contains recitals from the Quran and internal supplication.

I must thank my school for providing 
me with a room in which I can carry out this act of worship in peace and with like-minded people.

Nobody is forced to pray. And it cannot be ‘done in one’s head’, as some say.

Allowing students five minutes at lunchtime to pray discreetly is within the interests of any headteacher, as prayer provides an opportunity for introspection and does not disturb anybody.

Making up missed prayers after school
is not a solution, as prayer must occur within a specific time frame – failure to do so with no valid reason is grave.

I sincerely hope Katharine Birbalsingh, headteacher of the school in question, 
Michaela Community School in north London, will do her research into prayer, which is really in her best interests, rather than stick with this preposterous refusal to understand. 15-Year-Old Commuter, Whitechapel

Jinan (MetroTalk, Thu) says prayer teaches discipline and unity, but a secular school is not required to provide extra religious facilities for specific groups if it decides not to – and it is entirely fair as it has the same equal rules for everyone.

As for ‘unity’, since this is clearly not a Muslim country, if they expect minority groups to segregate themselves for the purpose of prayer, this is anything but ‘united’ as the only unity is within the smaller group who are separating themselves from others and therefore emphasising division. Paul, London

Making it law, doesn’t make it true

Now that our government has enacted a law that says that Rwanda is a safe country, perhaps the same technique can be applied to other areas.

We could solve overcrowding in prisons by making a law that declares many violent prisoners safe, which would allow them to be released back into society.

And why stop there? Why not enact a law declaring that the dangerous understaffing of our NHS is safe? That would doubtless save countless lives.

There may be naysayers who will claim that simply making a law that says things are safe will not, in truth, actually make them safe, but I’m sure it will come as no surprise that I envisage a simple way to circumnavigate that problem… Julian Self, Wolverton

Have women ever had safe spaces?

Chris and Julian support JK Rowling over her comments about trans issues, saying she is defending women’s rights, particularly their right to safe spaces (MetroTalk, Wed).

They are labouring under the false assumption that there are any truly safe public spaces for women.

As a woman, I can report that all women from puberty onwards need to learn to watch their own backs, along with awareness, care and defence strategies and techniques, particularly if she has a visual feature that marks her out for undue attention, or has any vulnerabilities. It has always been this way.

I find it remarkable that the anti-woke campaigners from the political right are today claiming to be ardent feminists!

As a proud mother of a trans man, I’m disturbed by Ms Rowling’s stance. She has no skin in the game whereas the younger Harry Potter actors (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) who opposed her views are from the next generation from Ms Rowling.

It is their generation’s lives, culture and values that Ms Rowling is making into a political and publicity football.

They owe her no apology. Despite voicing her words in the films, these fine young actors are not Ms Rowling’s personal puppets.

There are actual rising dangers for women, stemming from the promotion of misogyny online, the porn industry, Andrew Tate et al, poverty (which affects women and children first and foremost), the wage gap, and on and on. Too many for this letter. Judy Baldwinson, via email

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