Tis the season for a school gate squabble

Dec 23 2009 By Maureen Messent

YOU can tell it’s Christmas and goodwill to all men when squabbling parents have had to be told to pack in their slanging matches outside St George’s Junior & Infant School in Newtown.

This newspaper’s Deep Throat has seen a letter to the warring mothers from head teacher Lynne Locker-Marsh, who mentions “verbal abuse” and “intimidation”.

A great example to the kids, aren’t they? What hope for the youngsters to respect other faiths when their elders square up to each other along ethnic lines?

You can tell it’s Christmas when... in our You Say letters columns a Mr A E Dunn (who clearly feels he has been) begrudges the £2 he and his wife were asked to pay to watch their granddaughter in a nursery play at Kingsthorn School. Apparently, two free tickets are issued to each family for parents. Everybody else has to take out second mortgages to pay £1 per seat.

You can tell it’s Christmas in Birmingham... when that fighter for lost causes, Hon Alderman Matt Redmond, huffs and puffs of his “shock” when he found a likeness of a long-dead city luminary was hidden by barriers at the Frankfurt Market. He discovered the statue of Thomas Attwood, first Birmingham MP and electoral reformer, said Matt, only after he’d “scrambled through a small gap”. Come off it, you old showman. Your alleged hero, Attwood, will be visible to all once the market’s left town. Have a hot toddy and relax.

I wish all these notables the complements of the season, though I’m not sure they deserve it.