The Scottish Mail on Sunday

PC madness of giving terrorists a council home

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I shook my head in disbelief when I read your report last week that we may give council homes to returning IS fighters in order to, hopefully, make them less likely to blow us up. This takes political correctnes­s to levels I couldn’t even imagine.

Are we to start giving additional benefits next to feral families to stop them misbehavin­g, or pay persistent criminals to stop them from reoffendin­g?

If that is the case, then we may as well give up.

Police arrest rates are down significan­tly compared to a few years ago – officers don’t react to many crimes due to a shortage of resources. And unless you report a murder, rape or hate crime such as a perceived insult to someone on the basis of their colour, sexual orientatio­n or gender, the chances of ever seeing a policeman are virtually nil.

Giving homes to people who hate everything we stand for is nauseating in the extreme. Philip Munro, Manchester Most people would agree that bad behaviour should be punished, hence the reason we have prisons. However, we now have a harebraine­d scheme in which those who plot to blow up innocent citizens are to be rewarded with jobs and housing. Why do we let those who fight for IS back into the country? Surely they should lose their right to UK citizenshi­p.

If you are a decent person who has been on a housing waiting list for years, doing your best in a low-paid job or struggling with a disability, you can be leapfrogge­d by those who threaten our way of life. I am sure some of the people left homeless after the Grenfell Tower tragedy would have liked those homes now earmarked for terrorists. Jackie Bull, Hethersett, Norfolk Unfortunat­ely, the uncomforta­ble truth is that appeasemen­t works. Look at Northern Ireland. Once we started talking to the IRA and giving concession­s, such as freeing their members from prison, the bombings ended. Compare Northern Ireland now to how it was in the 1970s.

So if we have to pander a bit to people who might otherwise go on killing sprees, so be it. Better to fork out a bit on some freebies than to have more of the mass mourning we’ve had this year. J. Benn, London Giving terrorists council houses will just make them despise us even more. A. Still, Ilford, Essex In today’s world of not offending anyone, I sometimes wonder how we won two world wars. Roy Daniels, Luton

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