Money would be better spent on fighting crime at home that on the armed forces

OF necessity there has been much focus in the recent budget on costing defence yet it would seem in some respects the horse has already bolted. A seemingly obscure comment but I’m actually referring to crime, the invasion from within which is evidently out of control.

As such none of us can feel safe and secure in this present predicament: so the question has to be asked if it would be better spending much of the money put aside for defence into fighting crime, let alone the phantom invader. Indeed as we are informed the police have been massively underfunded.

Also with regard to crime, I’m personally sick to death of the sympathy in the media extended to criminals in general but more especially with respect to their insanitary conditions in the prisons. It would seem to me that the prisoners themselves should be responsible for maintaining the cleanli- ness of the environment, part of the punishment. Further much of the damage to cells and the environment generally must be self- inflicted. And in the last analysis, there are positive effects to prisons gaining a reputation for not being such comfortable dwellings as it should dissuade others from wishing to be housed there in the first instance.

Those who have been on the receiving end of crime must surely wish the balance of media sympathy could be reversed in focusing far more on the victim rather than the perpetrator.

Somehow I think many politicians are afraid to say what they really think about this issue for fear of appearing extreme in their opinions. I’m sure however they would be at one with the electorate in being true to themselves. David Abbott Stoke Golding