LETTERS

Soft on crime

BRITAIN’S top police chief Cressida Dick is right to highlight that a failure to deal with persistent young offenders with earlier deterrent sentences also results in a failure to protect the public (Mail).

There needs to be a brake on the revolving door of re-offending, which sadly, is not a new phenomenon.

In 1970, four youths I had arrested were dealt with at the Old Bailey for 109 robberies. None served more than 18 months, which was certainly not a deterrent. It is for the courts to sentence offenders and clearly they are not fit for purpose.

TERENCE ALLARD, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

Unfair allegation

KANGAROO courts don’t just happen in Parliament and schools (Mail), they also occur in fostering.

If a child makes an allegation against a carer, however unfounded, and even if they have previously made untrue allegations, the child is instantly removed from the family.

Details of what is alleged are withheld from the carer, contact with social services is withdrawn, other foster children in the home are questioned and the police are involved.

When this happened to me, it was one of the worst times of my life.

My foster child retracted his allegation the following day and begged to come back to us, even sitting in our front garden for hours, but social services warned us not to have any contact with him.

Luckily, the police did not believe the allegation, but it took three months before we were cleared.

We received an official apology and compensation from social services, but this did not make up for the trauma we had endured. Other innocent foster carers have had their jobs put in jeopardy.

Name supplied, Harrow, Middlesex.

Brexit bottom line

TV RePORTS and speculation on Brexit always portray the UK position and performance negatively. It’s also pointless: the public voted for total control over our laws, economy and borders.

There is nothing to be discussed as anything less will be considered and condemned as a betrayal.

J. HOWARD, Bury, Lancs. AS AMUSING as it might be, JeanClaude Juncker’s unpaid drinks in the bar analogy is misleading.

It would be more accurate to say that having for years bought drinks for most of the 28 in the bar, the UK has decided it no longer proposes to pay for the further rounds that will be consumed after we have left. Time gentlemen, please!

M. CLARK, Crewkerne, Somerset. I WORK for a French company and know how this nation negotiates: they will argue extensively to find out how strong your opinions are. Then, getting close to the deal, they will cave in and accept an agreement.

So why don’t we use this strategy for Brexit?

M. HARVEY, Bagshot, Surrey. SIR JAMeS DySON is right: walk away now! eU negotiator Michael Barnier has made it clear there will be no trade deal without money upfront.

Can you imagine going to buy a computer and being told: ‘Pay up and then we will decide what you get after speaking to all 27 members of staff. There is no choice, no refund and, guess what, no computer!’

G. T. WATKINS, Chipping Norton, Oxon.

Proud to be caring

AFTeR reading a barrage of negative comments about the poor care of our elderly, I found myself reflecting about the real essence of care and my experience in the NHS and private sector.

In my career as a nurse and manager spanning 30 years, I have encountered people at their most vulnerable. I have had the privilege to hold the hands of many as they have taken their last breath or spoken a final word.

I have offered comfort to a mother who has lost her child and watched the joy on the faces of new parents. I have shared tears of happiness and heartbreak, felt thanks in a hug and sometimes just a look.

The most precious gift that you can give to anyone is your time.

Challenges around staffing and budgets face nurses daily, yet if we keep the focus on those we are trusted to care for, surely this should give us the sense of purpose for which we signed up.

I am proud of my profession and feel it is a great privilege to be a nurse. Surely always to be kind to those people we care for and to one another is a relatively simple goal as it comes from within us as individuals and not from a spreadsheet or board meeting.

NEIL YOuNG, Poole, Dorset.

Plastic’s not fantastic

IT’S unfair to make customers responsible for plastic bags. The

supermarkets and food companies should replace all the plastic carriers they issue with paper or biodegradable packaging.

They seem happy to contribute to the world’s plastic bag pollution as long as customers pay for the privilege.

If smaller companies have been able to switch to biodegradable bags without going bankrupt, I’m sure the big boys can do the same.

A plastic bag is a plastic bag whether we pay for it or not, and it is still polluting.

If it takes a further change in the law to bring about a necessary change, so be it. But maybe the big retailers could be shamed into it if we all shout loud enough.

Mrs C. PAGE, Ringwood, Hants.

Toughen up

HOW would the snowflakes cope with National Service?

I arrived at RAF Bridgnorth to start my training in 1956. We were met by swearing corporals and barking Alsatian dogs straining on their leads.

None of us thought to say: ‘Excuse me, can you direct me to the nearest safe space? I find your behaviour offensive, frightening and a threat to my physical and mental health.’

The next day we received injections in each thigh and upper arm, and then the challenging stuff started, including fighting with a bayonet and being gassed.

We were posted to live in cold huts or tents in countries not of our choosing, pay was a pittance and no one had a vote until they were 21, by which time we were civilians again.

I was lucky: I did not have to fight and faced serious danger just once. J. COLBERT, Walsall, W. Mids.