LIKE Tony Smith (Letters, February 23) I too was saddened by the ruling that prayers at formal council meetings were not lawful — subsequently overruled, thankfully, but what was largely overlooked by media reports of the High Court ruling was that the human rights of the former Bideford town councillor were not breached nor amounted to discrimination as he alleged; a refreshing common sense ruling compared with frequent other rulings concerning so called human rights.

Councillors or anyone else when public prayer, or indeed in church, are said have the freedom to assent to them or not. The usual response to prayers is the Hebrew-based word Amen, literally meaning 'so let it be so'.

If one does not accept the prayers, to me simply all that is needed to refrain from saying this!

Ian Silcox

Tavistock