BOTH football and cricket have a closed season. I think Hear All Sides should have a closed season on Labour-bashing and Gordon Brown-baiting and only allow letters that have a positive nature to them. I would like to see some humour, too.

I would like to start by making a suggestion about the use of schools as polling stations (HAS, June 6 and 8). In Ipswich, where I used to teach, we had a similar problem, as many as 1,500 were missing school every time there was an election. Our solution was to cordon off a small section of the school to be used as a polling station and provide a separate entrance.

At various times during polling day we took the children to show them what was happening and to explain the democratic process. We made polling day a positive experience for our pupils.

I look forward to some positive energy being generated through this column.

Jennifer Moore, Bishop Auckland.