Spectator letters: A history of Stepford Students; Brendan Behan and Joan Littlewood; and the Army’s tour of Pakistan

Silencing students

Sir: The Stepford Students (22 November) are nothing new. The NUS-inspired ‘No Platform’ policy has been used to ban anything that student radicals don’t like since at least the 1970s — usually Christians, pro-life groups or Israel sympathisers.

It should not be in the power of the narrow-minded activists of the student union to prevent individual students or groups from exercising their right to free speech and freedom of association. All students should have equal access to university-funded facilities, regardless of their beliefs. The student union should be seen largely as a social club with no powers to ban anything unless there has been genuinely bad behaviour, at which point it is the role of the university disciplinary committee to step in.
John-Paul Marney

Glasgow

Joan and my father

Sir: I fear Richard Ingrams exaggerates when he claims that ‘no one would have heard of Brendan Behan if it weren’t for Joan Littlewood’ (Letters, 15 November). My father’s talent was already widely acknowledged by the time his play The Hostage was produced at Stratford East.

But I do agree that the description of Joan as ‘thuggish’ is very wide of the mark. She was certainly a tough nut, but one with immense charm. She was actually rather a shy person, whose gruffness could be mistaken for rudeness. When I was a child hanging around backstage at the Theatre Royal, she showed me nothing but kindness, and I remember her fondly.
Blanaid Behan

Witney

The art of wonder

Sir: Harry Mount is right in lamenting ‘the death of serious public culture’ (‘Signs of contempt’, 15 November) whenever he visits a heritage property or exhibition. My recent museum visits with my children convinced me that museums are actually bad for their health. When museums emulate theme parks, with kids’ menus and tacky trinkets, children see them as intrinsically infantile.